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OnsL  (HundtetL  Jwsurfj^-mrdlv 
SEMI-ANNUAL 

conffHtnct 

OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 
OF  LATTER-DAY  SAINTS 

Held  in  the  Tabernacle 
Salt  Lake  City,  Utah 

Odtobsth,  9,  10,  and,  11,  1959 

With  Report  of  Discourses 

Published  by 
The  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints 
Salt  Lake  City,  Utah 


The  One  Hundred  Twenty-ninth  Semi-Annual 
Conference  of  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ 
of  Latter-day  Saints 


The  One  Hundred  Twenty-Ninth 
Semi-Annual  Conference  of  the  Church 
of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints 
convened  in  the  Tabernacle,  Salt  Lake 
City,  Utah,  Friday,  Saturday,  and  Sun- 
day, October  9,  10,  and  11,  1959. 

The  general  sessions  of  the  Confer- 
ence were  held  at  10:00  a.m.  and  2:00 
p.m.,  Friday,  Saturday  and  Sunday,  and 
the  General  Priesthood  meeting  was 
held  in  the  Tabernacle  Saturday  evening, 
October  10,  at  7:00. 

The  proceedings  of  the  general  ses- 
sions were  broadcast  and  telecast  over 
Station  KSL  and  KSL-TV  at  Salt  Lake 
City,  and  by  arrangement  through  KSL 
the  following  stations  made  available 
to  their  listening  or  viewing  audiences 
one  or  more  of  the  six  general  sessions: 

In  Utah:  KSVC  at  Richfield,  KSUB 
at  Cedar  City,  KVEL  at  Vernal,  KVNU 
at  Logan,  KDXU  at  St.  George. 

In  Idaho:  KRXK  at  Rexburg,  KID 
and  KID-TV  at  Idaho  Falls,  KBOI  and 
KBOI-TV  at  Boise,  KPST  at  Preston, 
KBRV  at  Soda  Springs,  and  KLIX-TV 
at  Twin  Falls. 

In  Colorado:  KREX  at  Grand  Junc- 
tion, KBTV  at  Denver. 

In  California:  KSRO  at  Santa  Rosa, 
KRDG  and  KVIP-TV  at  Redding, 
KEEN  and  KNTV  at  San  Jose,  KTVU- 
TV  at  Oakland,  KTTV  at  Los  Angeles, 
KERO-TV  at  Bakersfield,  KOVR-TV  at 
Stockton. 

In  Oregon:  KKID  at  Pendleton, 
KGW-TV  at  Portland. 

In  Arizona:  KPHO  and  KPHO-TV 
at  Phoenix,  KCLS  at  Flagstaff,  KVWM 
at  Show  Low,  KGUN-TV  at  Tucson. 

In  New  Mexico:  KRSN  at  Los  Alamos. 

In  Texas:  KWFT  at  Wichita  Falls. 

In  Washington:  KTNT-TV  at  Ta- 
coma,  KHQ-TV  at  Spokane. 

In  Nevada:  KLRJ-TV  at  Las  Vegas. 

All  general  sessions  of  the  Conference 
were  broadcast  in  the  Assembly  Hall  on 
Temple  Square,  in  Barratt  Hall  (60 
North  Main  Street),  over  a  loudspeak- 
ing  system  and  by  television.  Thousands, 
in  addition,  listened  to  the  services  on 


the  Tabernacle  Grounds  by  means  of 
amplifying  equipment. 

The  proceedings  of  the  General 
Priesthood  meeting  were  broadcast  in 
the  Assembly  Hall  and  Barratt  Hall 
over  public  address  systems,  and  by  di- 
rect wire  over  a  public  address  system 
to  members  of  the  Priesthood  in  other 
assemblies  throughout  the  United  States 
and  in  Canada. 

President  David  O.  McKay  presided, 
and  conducted  the  services  at  each  of 
the  sessions  of  the  Conference,  includ- 
ing the  General  Priesthood  meeting. 

A  full  report  of  Columbia  Broadcast- 
ing System's  Tabernacle  Choir  and 
Organ  broadcast  is  also  included  in  this 
record,  as  is  also  a  full  account  of  Colum- 
bia's Church  of  the  Air  program.  (See 
pages  126  to  130.) 

Elder  Joseph  Anderson  was  Clerk  of 
the  Conference. 

General  Authorities  of  the  Church 
Present 

The  First  Presidency:  David  O. 
McKay,  J.  Reuben  Clark,  Jr.,*  Henry 
D.  Moyle.** 

The  Quorum  of  the  Twelve  Apostles: 
Joseph  Fielding  Smith,  ***,  Spencer  W. 
Kimball,  Ezra  Taft  Benson,  Mark  E. 
Peterson,  Delbert  L.  Stapley,  ****, 
LeGrand  Richards,  Richard  L.  Evans, 
George  Q.  Morris,  Hugh  B.  Brown, 
Howard  W.  Hunter.***** 

Patriarch  to  the  Church:  Eldred  G. 
Smith. 

Assistants  to  the  Twelve  Apostles: 
Alma  Sonne,  EIRay  L.  Christiansen, 
John  Longden,  Sterling  W.  Sill,  Gordon 
B.  Hinckley,  Henry  D.  Taylor,  William 
J.  Critchlow,  Jr.,  Alvin  R.  Dyer. 

The  First  Council  of  the  Seventy: 
Levi  Edgar  Young,  Antoine  R.  Ivins, 
Seymour  Dilworth  Young,  Milton  R. 
Hunter,  Bruce  R.  McConkie,  Marion  D. 
Hanks,  Albert  Theodore  Tuttle. 

Presiding  Bishopric:  Joseph  L.  Wirth- 
lin,  Thorpe  B.  Isaacson,  and  Carl  W. 
Buehner. 


2 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


General  Officers  and  Other 
Authorities  Present 

Church  Historian  and  Recorder: 
Joseph  Fielding  Smith,  and  as  assistants, 
A.  William  Lund  and  Preston  Nibley. 

Members  of  the  General  Welfare  Com- 
mittee, Church  Welfare  Program. 

Members  of  the  Church  Board  of 
Education  and  Administrator  Church 
Board  of  Education,  Directors  and  As- 
sociate Directors  of  Institutes,  and 
Seminary  Instructors. 

Presidents  of  Stakes  and  their  Coun- 
selors, Presidents  of  Temples,  Patriarchs, 
High  Priests,  Seventies,  Elders,  General, 


Stake,  and  Ward  officers  of  Auxiliary 
Associations,  etc.,  from  all  parts  of  the 
Church. 


*President  J.  Reuben  Clark,  Jr.  was  sustained  as 
first  counselor  in  the  First  Presidency,  succeeding  in 
this  position  President  Stephen  L  Richards  who 
passed  away. 

**Henry  D.  Moyle  was  sustained  as  second  coun- 
selor in  the  First  Presidency,  succeeding  in  this 
position  President  J.  Reuben  Clark,  Jr.,  who  was 
sustained  as  first  counselor. 

***Elder  Harold  B.  Lee  was  visiting  missions  in 
South  America. 

****Elder  Marion  G.  Romney  was  visiting  missions 
in  Europe. 

*****Elder  Howard  W.  Hunter  was  sustained  as  a 
member  of  the  Quorum  of  the  Twelve  Apostles,  filling 
the  vacancy  caused  by  the  selection  of  Elder  Henry 
D.  Moyle  to  serve  as  second  counselor  in  the  First 
Presidency. 


FIRST  DAY 
MORNING  MEETING 


The  opening  session  of  the  Conference 
convened  in  the  Tabernacle  at  Salt  Lake 
City,  Utah,  Friday,  October  9  at  10:00 
a.m.,  with  President  David  O.  McKay 
presiding,  and  conducting  the  exercises 
of  the  meeting. 

The  choral  music  for  this  Conference 
session  was  furnished  by  the  Relief  So- 
ciety Singing  Mothers  of  the  Jordan 
Valley  Region,  Sister  Florence  Jepperson 
Madsen  conducting,  and  Frank  W.  Asper 
at  the  organ. 

President  McKay  opened  the  Confer- 
ence with  the  following  introductory 
remarks: 

President  David  O.  McKay: 

This  is  the  opening  session  of  the 
One  Hundred  Twenty-Ninth  Semi- 
Annual  Conference  of  the  Church  of 
Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints.  We 
are  convened  in  the  historic  Salt  Lake 
Tabernacle  on  Temple  Square.  All  the 
General  Authorities  of  the  Church  are 
here  in  attendance  excepting  Elder  Har- 
old B.  Lee  and  Elder  Marion  G.  Romney. 
Elder  Lee  is  in  South  America  officiating 
at  the  organization  of  two  new  mis- 
sions— the  Andes  Mission  and  the 
Brazilian  South  Mission.  Elder  Rom- 
ney is  making  an  official  visit  to  the 
European  Missions,  during  which  visit 
he  has  organized  the  new  South  German 
Mission.  Brother  Benson  will  be  here 
tomorrow.  He  is  not  present  this  morn- 
ing as  he  has  been  traveling  in  Europe. 

We  have  here  a  cable  from  El- 
der Romney  from  Munich,  Germany: 
"Dear  President  McKay  and  Brethren: 
As  General  Conference  approaches  our 
thoughts  are  with  you.  We  with  the 
35,000  Saints  and  missionaries  in  the 
British  Mission,  French,  European  and 
German-speaking  missions,  look  to  you 
for  sustaining  inspiration,  so  may  the 
Lord  bless  and  direct  you.  Marion 
Romney." 

I  have  a  cablegram  from  the  Brazilian 
Mission  at  Sao  Paulo:  "The  Saints  and 
missionaries  of  the  Brazilian  Mission 
join  in  prayers  for  an  inspired  Confer- 
ence." 


Brother  Joseph  Anderson  is  Clerk  of 
the  Conference.  For  the  convenience 
of  those  who  are  unable  to  enter  the 
building,  the  Tabernacle  being  filled 
so  far  as  we  can  see,  every  seat  being 
occupied,  we  announce  that  these  serv- 
ices and  all  general  sessions  of  the 
Conference  will  be  broadcast  in  the 
Assembly  Hall  and  Barratt  Hall  by 
television.  The  general  sessions  of  this 
Conference  will  be  broadcast  as  a  public 
service  over  television  and  radio  sta- 
tions throughout  the  west — over  21 
radio  stations  and  17  television  stations. 
The  names  of  these  stations  have  already 
been  announced  to  the  television  and 
radio  audiences.  To  the  owners  and 
managers  of  these  various  stations  we 
wish  to  express  our  sincere  appreciation. 

According  to  a  survey  that  was  made 
the  other  day,  it  is  possible  that  one 
million  people  will  hear  and  see  the 
proceedings  of  this  Conference  through 
radio  and  television.  This  figure  is 
based  on  the  ratio  of  each  city  carrying 
the  Conference,  and  the  number  of 
viewers  per  city. 

To  the  large  audience  assembled  in 
the  Tabernacle,  to  the  overflow  meet- 
ings in  the  Assembly  Hall,  Barratt  Hall, 
to  the  untold  thousands  comprising  the 
television  and  radio  audience,  in  behalf 
of  the  First  Presidency  and  Council  of 
the  Twelve  and  other  General  Authori- 
ties, we  bid  you  a  hearty  welcome. 

Please  remember  than  any  important 
messages  that  come  to  us  for  persons 
attending  the  sessions  of  this  Confer- 
ence will  be  announced  at  the  dismissal 
of  the  meetings  over  the  public  address 
system  on  the  grounds. 

We  are  favored  this  morning  in  hav- 
ing the  Relief  Society  Singing  Mothers 
from  the  Jordan  Valley  Region.  They 
will  furnish  music  for  the  sessions  of 
the  Conference  today.  It  is  a  joy  to 
have  these  mothers  present  this  morning. 

These  beautiful  flowers  which  you 
see  arranged  on  the  rostrum  and  pulpit 
have  come  from  Hawaii,  and  are  sent 
with  the  love  and  greetings  of  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Church  in  the  Oahu  Stake. 
We  express  appreciation  and  thanks  to 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


Friday,  October  9 

the  members  of  Oahu.  Our  thoughts 
and  best  wishes  throughout  the  Confer- 
ence will  be  with  them  as  we  enjoy  the 
fragrance  and  beauty  of  these  blooms 
from  Hawaii. 

We  note  also  the  presence  of  promi- 
nent men:  H.  Aldous  Dixon,  Congress- 
man; David  S.  King,  Congressman;  our 
Governor,  George  Dewey  Clyde;  LaMont 
Toronto,  Secretary  of  State;  Adiel  F. 
Stewart,  Mayor  of  Salt  Lake  City;  Cap- 
tain Russell  H.  Blood,  United  States 
Naval  Hospital;  his  son,  Russell  M.  of 
Washington,  D.  G;  and  others  un- 
doubtedly, whom  we  have  not  been  able 
to  observe  from  the  rostrum.  With 
these  we  have  our  stake  presidencies, 
bishoprics  of  wards,  other  ward  and 
stake  officers,  to  all  of  whom  we  extend 
a  hearty  welcome  and  prayers  that  we 
shall  have  indeed  a  spiritual  feast  to- 
gether. 

The  music,  as  already  announced, 
will  be  furnished  for  this  session  by  the 
Relief  Society  Singing  Mothers  of 
Jordan  Valley  Region,  Florence  Jepper- 
son  Madsen  conducting,  and  Elder 
Frank  W.  Asper  at  the  organ. 

We  shall  begin  this  session  by  the 
Relief  Society  Singing  Mothers  singing, 
"Open  Our  Eyes,  O  Loving  and  Com- 
passionate Jesus."  The  opening  prayer 
will  be  offered  by  Elder  Wilford  W. 
Richards,  until  recently  director  of  the 
Latter-day  Saints  Institute  of  Religion 
at  Utah  State  University  at  Logan,  Utah. 


First  Day 

The  Relief  Society  Singing  Mothers 
sang  "Open  Our  Eyes,  O  Loving  and 
Compassionate  Jesus." 

Elder  Wilford  W.  Richards  offered  the 
invocation. 

President  David  O.  McKay: 

The  invocation  was  just  offered  by 
Elder  Wilford  W.  Richards,  until  re- 
cently director  of  the  Institute  of  Religion 
at  Logan,  Utah.  The  Relief  Society 
Singing  Mothers  will  now  sing,  "Go 
Ye  Forth  With  My  Word,"  conducted 
by  Florence  Jepperson  Madsen. 


Singing  by  the  Singing  Mothers,  "Go 
Ye  Forth  With  My  Word." 

President  David  O.  McKay: 

As  I  said,  we  are  favored  with  having 
the  Singing  Mothers  under  the  direction 
of  Sister  Madsen  at  our  Conference  this 
morning.  I  want  to  say  we  are  blessed, 
and  I  am  sure  you  will  all  agree  with 
me.  Truly  the  Lord  said,  "The  song 
of  the  righteous  is  a  prayer  unto  me." 
We  are  inspired  with  the  beautiful 
singing  of  these,  our  mothers. 

Our  first  speaker  this  morning  will  be 
David  O.  McKay.  He  will  be  followed 
by  Elder  A.  Theodore  Tuttle  of  the 
First  Council  of  the  Seventy. 


PRESIDENT  DAVID  O.  McKAY 


"I  charge  thee  therefore  before  God," 
Paul  wrote  to  Timothy,  "and  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  who  shall  judge  the  quick 
and  the  dead  at  his  appearing  and  his 
kingdom; 

"Preach  the  word;  be  instant  in  season, 
out  of  season;  reprove,  rebuke,  exhort 
with  all  longsuffering  and  doctrine. 

"For  the  time  will  come  when  they 
will  not  endure  sound  doctrine;  but  after 
their  own  lusts  shall  they  heap  to  them- 
selves teachers,  having  itching  ears; 

"And  they  shall  turn  away  their  ears 
from  the  truth,  and  shall  be  turned 
unto  fables. 

"But  watch  thou  in  all  things,  endure 
afflictions,  do  the  work  of  an  evangelist, 
make  full  proof  of  thy  ministry."  (II 
Timothy  4:1-5.) 


Those  are  among  the  last  words  writ- 
ten by  Paul  to  his  son  in  the  faith, 
Timothy,  who  was  ordained  bishop  of 
the  Ephesians.  When  Paul  wrote  those 
words,  he  was  a  prisoner  under  Nero. 
Two  charges  were  pressed  against  him: 
one,  that  he  had  conspired,  so  it  was 
alleged  by  Nero's  partisans,  to  set  fire 
to  Rome;  second,  he  was  accused  of 
introducing  a  novel  and  unlawful  re- 
ligion. That  was  Paul's  second  im- 
prisonment. Many  of  his  friends  had 
left  him.  Demas,  who  had  been  in  the 
Church,  had  forsaken  him  and  gone 
home.  Alexander,  the  coppersmith,  an 
apostate,  had  testified  against  him;  but 
Luke  remained  by  his  side. 

Evidently  Peter,  Paul,  and  other  lead- 
ers of  the  Church  were  troubled  in  their 


PRESIDENT  DAVID  O.  McKAY 


5 


day  by  apostate  groups  even  as  leaders 
today  are  troubled  by  apostates  who 
usurp  authority,  misinterpret  scripture, 
and  preach  false  doctrine.  In  the  spirit 
of  charity  perhaps  we  should  say, 
troubled  by  apostates  who  are  mentally 
ill. 

It  seems  that  every  age  in  the  world 
has  been  afflicted  with  just  such  apos- 
tates and  such  perverted  truth,  and  with 
incorrigible  youth,  degenerate  groups, 
who  make  every  age  seem  worse  than 
those  which  preceded  it.  For  example, 
listen  to  this:  "The  world  is  passing 
through  troublous  times.  Young  people 
of  today  think  of  nothing  but  them- 
selves. They  have  no  reverence  for 
parents  or  old  age.  They  are  impatient 
of  all  restraint.  They  talk  as  if  they 
alone  know  everything.  As  for  girls, 
they  are  forward,  immodest,  and  un- 
womanly in  speech,  behavior,  and 
dress."  No,  that  was  not  for  today — 
that  was  written  in  1274  A.D. — 685  years 
ago! 

Here  is  another:  "President  Frederick 
C.  Perry  of  Hamilton  College,  expressing 
distrust  of  gloomsters  who  view  the 
world  with  alarm,  has  cited  these  writ- 
ings taken  from  an  Assyrian  tablet  dated 
2800  B.C.  as  proof  that  political  proph- 
ecy for  a  dismal  future  has  always  been 
prevalent: 

"  'The  earth  is  degenerating  in  these 
latter  days.  There  are  signs  that  the 
world  is  speedily  coming  to  an  end. 
Bribery  and  corruption  abound.  The 
children  no  longer  obey  their  parents. 
Every  man  wants  to  write  a  book,  and 
it  is  evident  that  the  end  of  the  world  is 
speedily  approaching.'  "  That  was  writ- 
ten 2800  B.C.! 

Well,  the  era  through  which  we  are 
passing  is  no  exception.  On  the  flyleaf 
of  the  book,  The  Naked  Communist, 
by  W.  Cleon  Skousen,  we  find  this  quo- 
tation, (and  I  admonish  everybody  to 
read  that  excellent  book  of  Chief 
Skousen's) : 

"The  conflict  between  communism 
and  freedom  is  the  problem  of  our  time. 
It  overshadows  all  other  problems.  This 
conflict  mirrors  our  age,  its  toils,  its  ten- 
sions, its  troubles,  and  its  tasks.  On  the 
outcome  of  this  conflict  depends  the 
future  of  mankind." 

Elaborating  that  statement,  I  should 
say  that  the  most  urgent  problem  of 
our  day  is  a  spiritual  problem.   I  agree 


with  one  leading  educator  who  said,  and 
I  quote:  "Unless  the  spiritual  problem 
is  solved,  civilization  will  fail;  indeed 
we  already  have  a  foretaste  of  that  fail- 
ure in  many  parts  of  the  world: 

"The  Nazi  creed  presents  a  new 
conception  of  civilization.  It  is  the  sup- 
position, advanced  with  fanatical  zeal, 
that  civilization  consists  primarily  in 
material  achievements,  and  can  reach 
its  goal  without  ethical  considerations. 
It  accents  power,  authority,  and  obedi- 
ence; denies  human  equality  and  the 
worth  of  the  individual." 

The  False  Teachings  of  Communism 

In  their  false  teachings  the  Com- 
munists accept  the  doctrine  of  Marx, 
who  denies  the  existence  of  God,  and 
repudiates  man's  immortality.  Second, 
they  deny  the  divinity  of  Jesus  Christ, 
and  of  course,  his  resurrection.  They 
challenge  the  free  agency  of  man. 

In  that  first  sentence  that  I  read  from 
Paul  to  Timothy,  Paul  declares  the 
existence  of  God,  and  we  shall  see  how 
authoritatively  he  supports  that.  He 
declares  the  divinity  of  Jesus  Christ,  and 
the  reality  of  his  resurrection.  I  read 
again  what  he  said  to  Timothy,  and 
this  is  almost  his  farewell  message  to 
that  boy,  "I  charge  thee  therefore  before 
God,  and  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who 
shall  judge  the  quick  and  the  dead  at 
his  appearing  and  his  kingdom." 
(II  Timothy  4:1.) 

The  United  States  recently  enter- 
tained the  leading  man  of  the  ideology 
that  denies  the  God,  Jesus  Christ,  and 
the  right  of  free  agency  and  dignity 
of  man.  Even  while  he  was  here  we 
could  hear  echoing  his  own  words: 
"We  remain  the  atheist  that  we  have 
always  been;  we  are  doing  as  much 
as  we  can  to  liberate  those  people  who 
are  still  under  the  spell  of  this  re- 
ligious opiate."  Those  are  his  words. 
He  said  further:  "Those  who  expect  us 
to  abandon  communism  will  have  to 
wait  until  a  shrimp  learns  to  whistle." 

A  number  of  years  ago,  Lord  Balfour, 
Prime  Minister  of  Great  Britain,  de- 
livered a  lecture  in  the  McEwen  Hall  of 
the  University  of  Edinburgh  on  the  sub- 
ject, "The  Moral  Values  Which  Unite 
the  Nations."  In  an  interesting  and 
convincing  manner,  Lord  Balfour  pre- 
sented the  following  fundamental  ties 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


Friday,  October  9 

that  unite  the  different  nations  of  the 
world: 

1.  Common  Knowledge. 

2.  Common  Commercial  Interest. 

3.  The  Intercourse  of  Diplomatic  Re- 
lationship. 

4.  The  Bonds  of  Human  Friendship. 

The  audience  greeted  his  masterful 
address  with  a  great  outburst  of  applause. 
As  the  presiding  officer  arose  to  express 
his  appreciation  and  that  of  the  audi- 
ence, a  Japanese  student,  who  was  doing 
graduate  work  at  the  University  of 
Edinburgh  stood  up,  and  leaning  over 
the  balcony,  said,  "But,  Mr.  Balfour, 
what  about  Jesus  Christ?" 

Mr.  Robert  E.  Spear,  to  whom  Pro- 
fessor Lang  related  this  incident,  writes: 
"One  could  have  heard  a  pin  drop  in 
the  hall.  Everyone  felt  at  once  the 
justice  of  the  rebuke.  The  leading 
statesman  of  the  greatest  Christian  em- 
pire in  the  world  had  been  dealing  with 
the  different  ties  that  are  to  unite 
mankind,  and  had  omitted  the  one 
fundamental  and  essential  bond.  And 
everyone  felt,  too,  the  dramatic  element 
in  the  situation — that  the  reminder  of 
his  forgetfulness  had  come  from  a  far- 
away non-Christian  land." 

"Preach  the  word,"  Paul  admonishes 
Timothy.  What  "word"?  That  ".  .  . 
Jesus  Christ,  who  hath  abolished  death, 
and  hath  brought  life  and  immortality 
to  light  through  the  gospel."  (Ibid., 
1:10.)  Those  words  were  named  in  that 
letter.   Let  us  consider  that. 

"Behold  the  man,"  said  Pontius  Pilate, 
Roman  governor  of  Judea,  as  Jesus, 
mockingly  bedecked  with  a  purple  robe, 
his  hair  platted  with  a  crown  of  thorns, 
stood  before  the  mob  who  cried,  "Crucify 
him;  crucify  him!" 

As  on  the  occasion  of  that  historic 
trial,  so  through  the  ages  men  have  be- 
held Christ  from  different  viewpoints. 
Some  who  reject  him  as  venomously  as 
did  the  rabble,  see  in  him  and  in  his 
disciples  "investors  of  a  Christian  moral 
system  that  has  undermined  and  sapped 
the  vigor  of  the  European  world."  Others 
with  clearer  insight,  begotten  by  expe- 
rience, behold  him  as  the  originator  of 
a  system  that  "promotes  industry,  hon- 
esty, truth,  purity,  and  kindness,  a  sys- 
tem that  upholds  law,  favors  liberty;  is 


First  Day 

essential  to  it,  and  would  unite  men  in 
one  great  brotherhood." 

Others  behold  him  as  the  "one  perfect 
character — the  peerless  personality  of 
history,"  but  deny  his  divinity.  Mil- 
lions accept  him  as  the  Great  Teacher, 
whose  teachings,  however,  are  not  ap- 
plicable to  modern  social  conditions.  A 
few — O  how  few! — of  the  approximately 
two  billion  inhabitants  of  the  globe, 
accept  him  for  what  he  really  is — "the 
Only  Begotten  of  the  Father;  who  came 
into  the  world,  even  Jesus,  to  be  cruci- 
fied for  the  world,  and  to  bear  the  sins 
of  the  world,  and  to  sanctify  the  world, 
and  to  cleanse  it  from  all  unrighteous- 
ness." 

Today  civilized  nations  are  sitting  on 
a  mountain  of  explosives,  accumulated 
in  defiance  of  Christ's  teachings.  Let 
the  heat  of  hatred,  suspicion,  and  greed 
become  a  little  more  intense,  and  there 
will  be  such  an  international  explosion 
as  will  greatly  retard,  if  not  forcibly 
drive  from  the  midst  of  mankind,  the 
hoped-for  peace  heralded  by  the  heaven- 
ly hosts  when  Christ  as  a  babe  was 
born  in  Bethlehem. 

Prove  it  as  a  fact,  and  it  is,  that  Christ 
did  appear  after  death  as  a  glorified 
resurrected  Being,  and  you  have  the 
answer  to  the  question  of  the  ages:  "If 
a  man  die,  shall  he  live  again?"  Let 
us  look  at  the  deep  significance  of  the 
testimony  of  the  disciples  of  Jesus,  which 
may  be  better  understood  when  we 
realize  that  with  Jesus'  death  the  apostles 
were  stricken  with  gloom.  When  he 
was  crucified,  their  hopes  all  but  died. 
That  his  death  was  a  reality  to  the 
disciples  is  shown  in  their  intense  grief, 
in  the  statement  of  Thomas,  in  the 
moral  perplexity  of  Peter,  and  in  the 
evident  preparations  for  a  permanent 
burial  of  their  Master.  Notwithstanding 
the  assurance  of  Christ,  often  repeated 
during  the  two  and  a  half  years  he  was 
with  them,  that  he  would  return  to 
them  after  death,  the  apostles  seemed  not 
to  have  accepted,  or  at  least  not  compre- 
hended the  statement  as  a  literal  fact. 

What  was  it,  we  ask  the  world,  that 
suddenly  changed  these  disciples  to 
confident,  fearless,  heroic  preachers  of 
the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ?  It  was  a 
revelation  that  Christ  had  risen  from 
the  grave,  his  promises  had  been  kept, 
his  Messianic  mission  fulfilled.  "The 
final  and  absolute  seal  of  genuineness 


PRESIDENT  DAVID  O.  McKAY 


7 


had  been  put  on  all  his  claims,  and  the 
indelible  stamp  of  a  divine  authority 
upon  all  his  teachings.  The  gloom  of 
death  had  been  banished  by  the  glorious 
light  of  the  presence  of  the  risen,  glori- 
fied Lord  and  Savior." 

On  the  evidence  of  these  unprejudiced, 
unexpected,  incredulous  witnesses  the 
resurrection  has  its  impregnable  founda- 
tion. There  was  one  young  man  among 
them.  I  do  not  know  whether  we  know 
about  his  life,  but  I  like  to  think  of  him 
as  a  sort  of  independent  thinker,  not 
paying  much  attention  to  his  mother's 
religion — his  mother  had  joined  the 
Christian  Church,  but  he  did  not  pay 
much  attention  to  it  until  he  was  dis- 
turbed one  night  by  his  mother's  voice 
asking  him  to  rise  quickly,  "don't  stop 
to  dress,  throw  a  cloak  around  your  body 
and  rush  to  Gethsemane  and  tell  Jesus 
that  Judas  and  soldiers  are  coming  to 
arrest  him."  I  think  that  young  man 
who  fled  naked  from  the  men  who 
snatched  the  sheet  from  his  body,  was 
John  Mark,  the  author  of  one  of  the 
four  Gospels.  We  know  he  did  join  the 
Church,  later,  and  that  he  labored  with 
Peter.  We  know  that  Paul,  in  that 
letter  to  Timothy,  said:  "Bring  Mark 
with  you.  He  is  profitable  to  bur  min- 
istry, and  let  us  hear  his  testimony." 
(See  II  Timothy  4:11.)  We  know  he 
went  on  a  mission  to  the  northern  part 
of  Africa,  and  you  travelers  today  can 
walk  over  ruins  built  to  his  memory. 

Testimony  of  Mark 

We  have  no  evidence  that  Mark  joined 
the  Church  while  the  Savior  was  on  the 
earth.  Undoubtedly  the  Savior  was  in 
Mark's  home.  At  any  rate  we  are  justi- 
fied in  assuming  that  he  was  acquainted 
with  the  Master.  Mark  does  not  himself 
recount  any  appearance  of  the  Risen 
Lord,  but  he  testifies  that  the  Lord  would 
meet  his  disciples.  From  Mark  we  hear 
the  glorious  proclamation  of  the  first 
empty  tomb  in  all  the  world.  For  the 
first  time  in  history  the  words  "Here 
lies"  were  supplanted  by  the  divine 
message,  "He  is  risen."  No  one  can 
doubt  that  Mark  was  not  convinced  in 
his  soul  of  the  reality  of  the  empty 
tomb,  and  if  my  inference  is  right,  he 
knew  about  the  trial,  the  humiliation 
to  which  Jesus  was  subjected,  and  the 
crucifixion,  and  he  became  a  minister 


of  the  gospel.  To  the  proclaiming  of 
this  truth  he  devoted  his  life,  and  if 
tradition  can  be  relied  upon,  he  sealed 
his  testimony  with  his  blood. 

Testimony  of  Luke 

The  text  we  read  said  that  Luke  stood 
by  Paul's  side  at  the  jail.  It  was  not 
long  after  that  before  Paul,  according  to 
tradition,  was  beheaded.  Luke  was  a 
physician.  He  spent  many  years  of  his 
life  studying  about  this  man,  Jesus,  who 
was  crucified.  He  experienced  the  dark- 
ness that  spread  over  that  country  when 
Jesus  was  crucified.  According  to  all 
trustworthy  testimony  we  have  the  gos- 
pel of  Luke  as  it  came  from  his  own 
hand.  In  chapter  24  Luke  testifies  to 
the  divine  message:  "Why  seek  ye  the 
living  among  the  dead? 

"He  is  not  here,  but  is  risen."  (Luke 
24:5-6.) 

With  equal  assurance  as  to  their  ac- 
curacy we  can  accept  his  statement  and 
witness  in  regard  to  Peter's  and  Paul's 
and  other  apostles'  testimony  regarding 
the  resurrection.  "To  whom  also  he 
[Christ]  shewed  himself  alive  after  his 
passion  by  many  infallible  proofs,  being 
seen  of  them  forty  days,  and  speaking 
of  the  things  pertaining  to  the  kingdom 
of  God."  (Acts  1:3.) 

Who  can  doubt  Luke's  absolute  con- 
fidence in  the  reality  of  the  risen  Re- 
deemer? Contrast  his  testimony,  his  life, 
with  that  of  upstarts  who  deny  the  ex- 
istence of  God  and  laugh  at  the  claims 
of  Jesus  Christ  as  the  Redeemer. 

It  is  true  that  neither  Mark  nor  Luke 
testify  as  to  having  personally  seen  the 
Risen  Lord,  and  therefore  some  urge 
that  their  recorded  testimonies  cannot 
be  taken  as  firsthand  evidence.  That 
they  do  not  so  testify,  and  yet  were 
convinced  that  others  did  see  him,  shows 
how  incontrovertible  was  the  evidence 
among  the  apostles  and  other  disciples 
that  the  resurrection  was  a  reality. 

Testimony  of  Paul 

Fortunately,  however,  there  is  a  docu- 
ment which  does  give  the  personal  testi- 
mony of  an  eyewitness,  a  witness  to 
an  appearance  of  Jesus  after  his  death 
and  burial.  This  personal  testimony  also 
corroborates  the  testimony  not  only  of 
these  two  men,  Mark  and  Luke,  but  of 
others  also.    I  have  in  mind  Saul,  a 


8 

Friday,  October  9 

Jew  of  Tarsus,  educated  at  the  feet  of 
Gamaliel,  a  strict  Pharisee,  and  before 
his  conversion  a  bitter  persecutor  of  all 
who  believed  in  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  And 
there  is  a  quotation  from  the  oldest  au- 
thentic document  in  existence  relating 
or  testifying  to  the  resurrection  of 
Christ,  in  which  we  find  Saul's  (Paul's) 
words,  sent  back  to  people  who  had 
joined  the  Church,  whom  he  loved  and 
who  loved  him,  saying: 

"For  I  delivered  unto  you  first  of  all 
that  which  I  also  received,  how  that 
Christ  died  for  our  sins  according  to  the 
scriptures; 

"And  that  he  was  buried,  and  that  he 
rose  again  the  third  day  according  to 
the  scriptures: 

"And  that  he  was  seen  of  Cephas, 
then  of  the  twelve: 

"After  that,  he  was  seen  of  above  five 
hundred  brethren  at  once;  of  whom  the 
greater  part  remain  unto  this  present, 
but  some  are  fallen  asleep. 

"After  that,  he  was  seen  of  James; 
then  of  all  the  apostles. 

"And  last  of  all  he  was  seen  of  me 
also,  as  of  one  born  out  of  due  time. 

"For  I  am  the  least  of  the  apostles, 
that  am  not  meet  to  be  called  an  apostle, 
because  I  persecuted  the  church  of  God." 
(I  Cor.  15:3-9.) 

Testimony  of  Modern  Revelation 

In  addition  to  the  ancient  apostles, 
we  have  the  testimony  of  the  Prophet 
Joseph  Smith  who  gives  in  an  unequivo- 
cal description  the  following  stirring 
testimony  in  relation  to  his  first  vision: 

".  .  .  When  the  light  rested  upon  me 
I  saw  two  Personages  .  .  .  standing  above 
me  in  the  air.  One  of  them  spake  unto 
me,  calling  me  by  name,  and  said,  point- 
ing to  the  other — This  is  My  Beloved 
Son.  Hear  Him!"  (P.  of  G.  P.,  Joseph 
Smith  2:17.)  These  words  were  spoken 
nearly  two  thousand  years  after  the 
events  to  which  I  have  already  called 
your  attention! 

The  Latter-day  Saint  Belief 
Thus,  my  dear  fellow  workers  and 
my  friends  in  the  world,  the  Church 
of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints 
stands  with  Peter,  with  Paul,  with 
James,  and  with  all  the  other  apostles 
in  accepting  the  resurrection,  not  only 
as  being  literally  true,  but  also  as  the 
consummation  of  Christ's  divine  mis- 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


First  Day 

sion  on  earth.  Other  great  religious 
leaders  among  the  nations  of  the  world 
since  history  began  have  taught  virtue, 
temperance,  self-control,  service,  obedi- 
ence to  righteousness  and  duty;  some 
have  taught  a  belief  in  one  supreme  ruler 
and  in  a  hereafter;  but  only  Christ  broke 
the  seal  of  the  grave  and  revealed  death 
as  the  door  to  immortality  and  eternal 
life. 

If  Christ  lived  after  death,  so  shall 
men,  each  one  taking  his  place  in  the 
next  world  for  which  he  is  best  fitted. 
Since  love  is  as  eternal  as  life,  the  mes- 
sage of  the  resurrection  is  the  most  com- 
forting, the  most  glorifying  ever  given 
to  man;  for  when  death  takes  a  loved 
one  from  us,  we  can  look  with  assurance 
into  the  open  grave  and  say,  "He  is  not 
here;  he  will  rise  again." 

My  dear  fellow  workers,  it  is  just  as 
easy  for  me  to  accept  as  a  divine  truth 
the  fact  that  Christ  preached  to  the 
spirits  in  prison  while  his  body  lay  in 
the  tomb  as  it  is  for  me  to  look  at  you 
from  this  pulpit.  It  is  true!  It  is  just 
as  easy  for  me  to  realize — and  note  this— 
that  one  may  so  live  that  he  may  re- 
ceive impressions  and  direct  messages 
through  divine  inspiration.  The  veil  is 
thin  between  those  who  hold  the  priest- 
hood and  divine  messengers  on  the  other 
side  of  the  veil. 

Let  us  say  today  as  Paul  wrote  to 
Timothy:  "Preach  the  word  ...  do  the 
work  of  an  evangelist,  make  full  proof 
of  thy  ministry."  (II  Timothy  4:2,  5.) 

".  .  .  The  Lord  is  God,  and  beside 
him  there  is  no  Savior. 

"Great  is  his  wisdom,  marvelous  are 
his  ways,  and  the  extent  of  his  doings 
none  can  find  out. 

"His  purposes  fail  not,  neither  are 
there  any  who  can  stay  his  hand. 

"From  eternity  to  eternity  he  is  the 
same,  and  his  years  never  fail. 

"For  thus  saith  the  Lord — I,  the  Lord, 
am  merciful  and  gracious  unto  those 
who  fear  me,  and  delight  to  honor  those 
who  serve  me  in  righteousness  and  in 
truth  unto  the  end. 

"Great  shall  be  their  reward  and 
eternal  shall  be  their  glory."  (D&C  76:1- 
6.) 

God  help  us  in  this  age  so  threatened 
with  an  ideology  of  benighted  people 
of  disbelief  in  God  our  Father  and  in 
his  Son  Jesus  Christ  and  in  the  restored 
gospel  through  those  divine  Personages, 


ELDER  ALBERT  THEODORE  TUTTLE 


to  preach  the  Word  and  to  be  true  to 
our  callings  no  matter  what  or  where 
they  may  be,  I  pray  in  the  name  of 
Jesus  Christ.  Amen. 


President  David  O.  McKay: 

Elder  A.  Theodore  Tuttle  of  the  First 
Council  of  Seventy  will  now  speak  to  us. 


ELDER  ALBERT  THEODORE  TUTTLE 

Of  the  First  Council  of  the  Seventy 


My  dear  brothers  and  sisters,  my  testi- 
mony this  morning  is  that  the  soul- 
stirring  message  that  we  have  heard  has 
come  from  the  Lord;  that  his  speaker 
was  the  officially  chosen  servant  to  speak 
to  the  world  today,  President  David  O. 
McKay.  Historically,  this  has  always 
been  the  mission  of  a  prophet — not  so 
much  to  foretell  as  to  forthtell.  I  trust 
that  many  besides  the  group  in  this 
congregation  will  have  borne  upon  their 
souls  the  same  testimony  that  this  mes- 
sage comes  from  the  Lord  through  the 
Lord's  servant. 

Within  the  past  week  we  have  had  an 
experience  in  our  home  that  has  caused 
me  some  serious  reflection.  We  have 
been  blessed  with  our  sixth  child — a 
sweet  little  girl.  Last  Sunday  morning 
I  was  called  to  the  hospital  about 
4:00  a.m.  As  I  was  driving  there  I 
noticed  that  in  my  haste  I  had  forgotten 
my  wallet.  I  thought  for  a  moment 
that  I  should  return  and  get  it,  and 
then  I  thought,  "I  haven't  time."  Later, 
I  stood  by  the  bedside  of  my  companion 
and  observed  the  processes  that  are 
normal  and  natural  in  childbirth.  When 
in  a  moment  of  anguish  a  poignant  cry 
of  pain  escaped  her  lips,  that  wallet 
didn't  seem  very  important. 

Now,  I  am  not  trying  to  depreciate  a 
wallet,  nor  the  temporal  security  that 
it  symbolizes,  for  I  think  it  is  necessary, 
and  that  the  Lord  intends  by  prudence 
that  we  have  sufficient  of  the  world's 
goods.  However,  I  think  there  is  some- 
thing purifying  that  comes  into  the  heart 
of  a  father  when  he  stands  by  the  side 
of  his  wife  during  the  processes  of  child- 
birth, and  I  thought  of  the  real  values 
of  life.  The  things  that  took  on  the 
most  significance  were  life  itself  and  its 
purpose. 

The  wallet  was  not  of  most  value. 
Life  and  the  life  of  a  loved  one  was. 
The  family  and  its  choice  relationships 
assumed  their  proper  importance.  The 
love  that  exists  between  a  husband  and 
a  wife,  how  precious  it  became!  And 


then  above  all,  the  thing  of  prime  im- 
portance was  the  knowledge  of  a  gospel 
plan  of  salvation  that  gives  meaning 
and  purpose,  direction  and  worth,  to 
life — a  gospel  plan  that  raises  the  child- 
birth process  from  a  purely  physical 
thing  to  a  partnership  with  our  Father 
in  heaven  in  keeping  his  first  command- 
ment, and  in  bringing  h'is  spiritual 
children  to  tabernacle  in  temporal 
bodies. 

I  was  grateful  for  the  knowledge  that 
our  family  ties,  sealed  by  the  Holy 
Priesthood  of  the  Lord  and  based  upon 
obedience  in  righteousness  to  his  com- 
mandments, would  continue  throughout 
eternity.  I  was  grateful  for  the  knowl- 
edge that  love,  as  President  McKay 
mentioned,  will  endure  forever,  and  that 
those  things  that  matter  most  will  sur- 
vive and  have  meaning  not  only  in  this 
sphere,  but  in  others  also. 

Now,  as  I  pay  tribute  to  my  wonderful 
wife,  I  pay  tribute  to  another  group  of 
women  in  this  Church.  I  looked  into 
their  faces  as  I  came  to  the  pulpit  this 
morning.  These  are  the  wives  of  the 
General  Authorities.  I  think  all  of  us 
know  that  at  least  once  a  week  they  share 
their  husbands  with  all  of  the  Church — 
always  two  days,  sometimes  three,  oft- 
times  more.  For  the  wives  there  is  no 
compliment  on  a  fine  talk  after  the 
conference,  no  thanks  for  some  question 
answered,  for  some  help  given,  ofttimes 
not  even  a  thought.  However,  few  of 
these  Brethren  could  serve  as  well  with- 
out the  quiet,  sustaining,  invisible,  yet 
real  strength  that  comes  from  the  com- 
panionship of  a  good  wife.  The  women's 
work  is  in  the  home  with  their  children 
or  grandchildren,  sustaining  their  com- 
panions, serving  in  the  Church  and 
community,  and  sharing  their  husbands 
with  the  rest  of  the  Church.  Although 
their  work  has  an  everydayness  about  it, 
it  requires  as  much  service  and  dedica- 
tion as  other  kinds  of  work. 

Then,  as  I  go  about  in  the  wards  and 
stakes,  I  find  literally  thousands  of  wives 


10 

Friday,  October  9 

who  do  the  same  thing,  who  give  serv- 
ice, even  sacrifice,  in  permitting  their 
husbands  who  hold  the  priesthood,  to  go 
to  countless  meetings  and  give  thou- 
sands of  hours  of  service  to  their  fellow 
men. 

Surely  Milton  must  have  been  think- 
ing of  such  as  these  as  he  penned  these 
words  in  the  sonnet  on  his  blindness: 
"They  also  serve  who  only  stand  and 
wait."  I  am  humbled  by  the  great  serv- 
ice that  is  given  in  this  Church  by  these 
women,  of  whom  this  great  Singing 
Mother's  Chorus  is  but  symbolic. 

I  would  pay  my  respects,  too,  to  one 
other  group  in  the  Church — the  unsung 
and  unheralded.  Without  their  efforts 
the  work  of  this  Church  would  come  to 
a  standstill.  These  are  the  office  per- 
sonnel, the  secretaries,  the  office  man- 
agers, the  custodians,  the  department 
heads,  the  clerks,  the  stenographers,  the 
operators — all  who  give  so  unstintedly 
of  their  time  and  service  in  the  Church 
Office  Building,  and  elsewhere,  because 
of  their  spirit  of  dedication  and  devotion 
to  this  work. 

I  humbly  pray  that  the  Lord  will 
bless  his  children  who  serve  him.  I  am 
grateful  beyond  expression  for  a  Church 
that  is  organized  by  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  that  permits,  even  obligates,  his 
children  to  serve  in  his  cause,  a  Church 
in  which  the  lay  members  not  only 
participate,  but  lead,  a  Church  in  which 
each  one  of  us  can  find  expression  for 
his  talents  and  growth  in  his  character 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


First  Day 

as  he  strives  to  earn  his  salvation  and 
to  serve  his  fellow  men. 

I  know  that  God  lives,  that  Jesus 
Christ  is  his  Son;  that  he  lives,  that  he 
directs  this  Church  and  his  prophets 
here  on  this  earth.  I  am  grateful  for 
the  Church  organization  that  gives  us 
a  medium  of  service  to  mankind  and 
growth  for  ourselves.  May  each  of  us 
in  our  own  contribution  find  satisfaction 
and  joy  in  service  to  our  fellow  men 
and  to  our  Lord,  I  humbly  ask  in  the 
name  of  Jesus  Christ.  Amen. 

President  David  O.  McKay: 

The  Choir  and  Congregation  will 
now  join  in  singing,  "Now  Let  Us  Re- 
joice," conducted  by  Sister  Florence 
Jepperson  Madsen.  After  the  singing 
we  shall  hear  from  Elder  William  J. 
Critchlow,  Jr. 


The  congregation  joined  with  the 
Singing  Mothers  in  singing  the  hymn, 
"Now  Let  Us  Rejoice  in  the  Day  of 
Salvation." 


President  David  O.  McKay: 

Elder  William  J.  Critchlow,  Jr.,  As- 
sistant to  the  Council  of  the  Twelve, 
will  now  speak  to  us.  He  will  be  fol- 
lowed by  Elder  Mark  E.  Petersen  of  the 
Council  of  the  Twelve. 


ELDER  WILLIAM  J.  CRITCHLOW,  JR. 

Assistant  to  the  Council  of  the  Twelve  Apostles 


President  McKay,  my  brothers,  sisters 
and  friends: 

President  McKay,  setting  me  apart 
one  year  ago,  charged  me:  "to  be  a 
special  witness  to  the  name  of  Christ 
in  all  the  world."  I  shall  use  my  few 
minutes  pursuing  the  business  of  that 
charge. 

In  fancy,  I  made  a  pilgrimage  back 
through  nineteen  centuries  of  time  to 
Palestine.  I  went  to  seek  the  man  of 
Galilee  called  Jesus.  I  fancied  I  was 
in  that  fabulous  city  of  Tiberius  on  the 
shore  of  the  Sea  of  Galilee  where  I 
observed,  along  the  water's  edge,  miles 
of  palaces  and  fashionable  residences 
surrounded  by  palm  groves  and  rich 


gardens,  gay  with  tropical  luxuriance. 

On  an  almost  deserted  thoroughfare 
I  saw  the  markets  of  rich  merchants  and 
the  stands  of  oriental  trades  people. 

Approaching  a  merchant,  I  inquired 
if  he  knew  the  whereabouts  of  the  man 
of  Galilee,  named  Jesus.  For  a  moment 
he  just  stared  at  me;  then  said,  "Where 
have  you  been?  Look  at  this  deserted 
street.  Only  minutes  ago  he  came  this 
way  going  west,  and  all  the  customers 
followed  him.  I  would  have  followed, 
too,  had  I  someone  to  watch  my  mer- 
chandise." 

I  overtook  the  multitude  before  it 
settled  on  a  little  hill.  Fortunately,  I 
found  myself  near  him  with  sitting 


ELDER  WILLIAM  }.  CRITCHLOW,  JR. 


11 


space  for  some  of  you  out  there  who, 
in  fancy,  will  stretch  your  imagination 
one  thousand  nine  hundred  years  back 
into  the  past.  Come  quickly.  He  is 
speaking: 

"Blessed  are  the  poor  in  spirit:  for 
theirs  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 

"Blessed  are  they  that  mourn:  for  they 
shall  be  comforted. 

"Blessed  are  the  meek:  for  they  shall 
inherit  the  earth."  (See  Matt,  chapters 
5-7  for  Sermon  on  the  Mount.) 

He  pauses,  and  arises  from  his  sitting 
position  upon  a  large  rock  as  if  to  survey 
the  multitude. 

He  is  tall  in  stature,  perfectly  formed 
without  spot  or  blemish.  He  wears  a 
tunic  and  an  outer  robe.  Sandals  are 
on  his  feet. 

He  settles  back  upon  the  rock  and 
speaks: 

"Blessed  are  they  which  do  hunger 
and  thirst  after  righteousness:  for  they 
shall  be  filled. 

"Blessed  are  the  merciful:  for  they 
shall  obtain  mercy. 

"Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart:  for 
they  shall  see  God." 

I  find  it  difficult  to  concentrate  on 
what  he  is  saying,  just  for  gazing  at 
him. 

His  brow  is  smooth. 

His  complexion  is  clear. 

His  eyes  are  blue. 

His  hair  is  long. 

His  beard  is  brown  like  his  hair. 

His  every  feature  is  perfect. 

His  motions  are  graceful. 

His  voice  is  soft  and  low.* 

Listen  to  him:  "After  this  manner 
therefore  pray  ye:  Our  Father  which 
art  in  heaven,  Hallowed  be  thy  name. 

"Thy  kingdom  come.  Thy  will  be 
done  in  earth,  as  it  is  in  heaven. 

"Give  us  this  day.  .  .  ." 

Need  I  repeat  more  of  it? 

"Lay  up  not  for  yourselves  treasures 
upon  earth,  where  moth  and  rust  doth 
corrupt,  and  where  thieves  break  through 
and  steal; 

"But  lay  up  for  yourselves  treasures 
in  heaven,  where  neither  moth  nor  rust 
doth  corrupt,  and  where  thieves  do  not 
break  through  nor  steal; 

"For  where  your  treasure  is,  there  will 
your  heart  be  also.  .  .  . 

°This  pen  picture  is  by  a  Roman  trader  who, 
on  the  old  silk  road  to  China,  paused  in 
Palestine. 


"And  why  take  ye  thought  for  rai- 
ment? Consider  the  lilies  of  the  field, 
how  they  grow;  they  toil  not,  neither  do 
they  spin: 

"Even  Solomon  in  all  his  glory  was 
not  arrayed  like  one  of  these.  .  .  . 

"But  seek  ye  first  the  kingdom  of  God, 
and  his  righteousness,  and  all  these 
things  shall  be  added  unto  you.  .  .  . 

"Ask,  and  it  shall  be  given  you;  seek, 
and  ye  shall  find;  knock,  and  it  shall 
be  opened  unto  you." 

You  priesthood  fathers  would  bless 
your  wives  and  children  if  you  would 
gather  them  around  you  and  read  to 
them  the  full  text  of  the  great  Sermon 
on  the  Mount.  Do  it  soon.  It  is  the 
greatest  speech  ever  delivered  from  the 
lips  of  men.  It  is  the  most  widely  circu- 
lated speech  ever  heard  among  men.  It 
has  been  printed  in  thousands  of  books 
and  uttered  by  thousands  of  speakers 
from  thousands  of  pulpits  to  millions 
of  people. 

Another  time,  when  he  sought  seclu- 
sion, he  went  into  a  desert  place  to  be 
away  from  the  crowds.  The  multitude 
found  him,  and  he  received  them.  And 
when  the  day  began  to  wear  away,  he 
gathered  up  five  loaves  and  two  fishes, 
blessed  them,  and  fed  five  thousand 
people.  After  the  feeding,  there  re- 
mained twelve  baskets  of  fragments. 

Another  time  he  fed  four  thousand, 
after  blessing  seven  loaves  and  a  few 
fishes. 

The  feeding  of  these  thousands  was 
only  one  of  the  many  kinds  of  miracles 
he  performed. 

He  cleansed  the  leper; 

—turned  water  into  wine; 

— stilled  the  wind; 

— calmed  the  waves; 

— walked  on  the  water; 

— healed  the  sick  and  the  halt; 

— cast  out  evil  spirits; 

— returned  sight  to  the  blind; 

— restored  life  to  the  dead. 

Words  of  his  deeds  spread  throughout 
the  countryside,  even  to  Greece  and 
Rome,  and  when  it  was  time  for  the 
Feast  of  the  Passover,  Jerusalem  was 
crowded  with  people  from  far  and  near 
who  had  come  to  see  this  marvelous 
man  of  Galilee.  And  they  were  not 
disappointed.  Down  from  the  Mount 
of  Olives  and  through  the  streets  of 
Jerusalem  he  came,  riding  a  little  don- 
key. 


12 

Friday,  October  9 

His  path  was  strewn  with  flowers, 
palm  branches,  and  the  robes  of  friends 
who  watched  his  entry  and  who  sang: 

"Hosanna  to  the  Son  of  David: 

"Blessed  is  he  that  cometh  in  the 
name  of  the  Lord: 

"Hosanna  in  the  highest."  (See  Mark 
11:9-10.) 

Witnessing  the  procession,  I  fancy, 
were  two  slaves,  filled  with  rabid 
curiosity. 

"Who  is  he?"  asked  one  of  the  other. 

"I  don't  know,"  was  the  reply. 

"Is  he  a  king?" 

"No,  he's  not  a  king." 

"Well,  is  he  crazy?" 

"No — he's  not  crazy." 

"Then  who  is  he?" 

"I  don't  know — he's  not  a  king — he's 
something  greater  than  a  king." 

Not  all  who  watched  his  triumphal 
entry  into  Jerusalem  were  his  friends. 
Members  of  the  Jewish  Sanhedrin,  dis- 
turbed by  Jesus'  miracles  and  preaching, 
and  definitely  alarmed  by  his  growing 
popularity  with  the  people,  plotted  as 
they  watched,  for  his  arrest — even  for 
his  death.  Not  many  hours  later  they 
bribed  one  of  his  apostles  with  thirty 
pieces  of  silver  to  betray  him.  After  a 
trial  of  mockery,  held  informally,  ir- 
regularly, and  illegally  during  the  night 
while  his  friends,  the  people,  slept,  he 
was  scourged,  then  led  to  a  place  called 
Calvary  where  he  was  nailed  to  a  cross. 
Among  his  last  words  were,  "Father, 
forgive  them;  for  they  know  not  what 
they  do."  (Luke  23:34.) 

The  morrow  was  the  Sabbath  of  the 
Lord  their  God.  Lest  his  presence  on 
the  cross  desecrate  that  holy  day,  his 
body  was  hurriedly  removed  and  laid 
away  in  a  borrowed  tomb  where  it  lay 
for  three  days. 

Resurrected,  he  tarried  off  and  on  with 
his  disciples  for  forty  days. 

One  day,  as  he  walked  with  his 
disciples  on  a  lonely  road,  he  paused  to 
bless  them  and  then  in  their  presence 
he  ascended  heavenward.  As  he  disap- 
peared a  heavenly  messenger  announced: 

".  .  .  Ye  men  of  Galilee,  why  stand 
ye  gazing  into  heaven?  this  same  Jesus, 
which  is  taken  up  from  you  into  heaven, 
shall  so  come  in  like  manner  as  ye  have 
seen  him  go  into  heaven."  (Acts  1:11.) 

Whence  came  this  Jesus  of  Nazareth — 
this  man  of  Galilee? 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


First  Day 

Some  thirty  years  before  his  ministry 
began,  Mary,  his  mother,  laden  with 
child  and  in  the  throes  of  her  travail, 
had  just  arrived  at  Bethlehem. 

Hers  had  been  a  long  four-or-five  day 
journey  on  the  back  of  a  little  donkey, 
when  she  was  not  afoot.  When  she 
arrived,  there  was  no  place  for  her  at 
the  inn  where  she  had  expected  to  stay, 
and  no  one  round  about  would  give  her 
space  to  stay.  So  a  bed  of  clean  straw 
was  hastily  made  for  her  in  a  manger 
in  a  nearby  stable. 

There,  Jesus  of  Nazareth  was  born. 
The  dumb  animals  tethered  there  were 
the  first  to  hear  the  infant  cry. 

"And  there  were  in  the  same  country 
shepherds  abiding  in  the  field,  keeping 
watch  over  their  flock  by  night. 

"And  lo,  the  angel  of  the  Lord  came 
upon  them,  and  the  glory  of  the  Lord 
shone  round  about  them:  and  they  were 
sore  afraid. 

"And  the  angel  said  unto  them,  Fear 
not:  for,  behold,  I  bring  you  good  tidings 
of  great  joy,  which  shall  be  to  all  peo- 
ple. 

"For  unto  you  is  born  this  day  in  the 
city  of  David  a  Saviour,  which  is  Christ 
the  Lord. 

"And  this  shall  be  a  sign  unto  you; 
Ye  shall  find  the  babe  wrapped  in 
swaddling  clothes,  lying  in  a  manger." 
(Luke  2:8-12.) 

And  there  in  the  manger  the  shep- 
herds found  him. 

Later  wise  men  from  the  East  brought 
the  babe  gifts  of  gold,  frankincense,  and 
myrrh. 

If  Jesus  had  come,  as  these  wise  men, 
riding  on  a  camel,  bearing  gold,  frankin- 
cense, and  myrrh,  with  a  crown  on  his 
head,  he  undoubtedly  would  have  been 
accepted — king  of  the  Jews. 

His  coming  had  been  long  awaited, 
but  they  could  not  accept  one,  born  so 
humbly  and  lowly  in  a  stable. 

He  came — born  away  from  home,  in 
obscurity. 

He  preached — the  clearest,  most  sim- 
ple, teacher  of  profound  truth  that  ever 
came  among  men. 

He  healed — 

He  called  followers  about  him — even 
apostles. 

He  suffered — betrayed,  denied,  and 
deserted. 

He  died — a  horrible  death  upon  a 
cross. 


ELDER  MARK  E.  PETERSEN 


13 


He  was  resurrected — after  three  days 
in  a  tomb. 
He  lives. 

He  will  return  again. 

Listen;  these  words  are  his: 

"I  am  from  above. 

I  came  down  from  heaven. 

All  power  is  given  unto  me. 

I  am  the  light. 

Ask  in  my  name. 

Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that  labour 
and  are  heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give 
you  rest. 

I  am  the  way. 

Keep  my  commandments. 

I  am  the  Lord  of  the  Sabbath. 

I  am  greater  than  the  temple. 

I  am  the  life. 

I  am  the  resurrection  and  the  life. 
I  am  the  truth. 

Heaven  and  earth  shall  pass  away, 
but  my  words  shall  not  pass  away. 

I  will  rise  from  the  dead. 

He  that  hath  seen  me  hath  seen  the 
Father. 

Ye  call  me  Master  and  Lord;  and  ye 
say  well  for  so  I  am." 

"I  know,"  said  the  woman  at  the 
well,  "that  Messias  cometh,  which  is 
called  Christ." 

Jesus  answered — "I  that  speak  unto 
thee  am  he."  (John  4:25-26.) 

When  Caiaphas  shouted — ".  .  .  tell  us 
whether  thou  be  the  Christ,  the  Son  of 
God." 

Jesus  answered— "Thou  hast  said." 
(Matt  26:63-64.) 

"Nearly  two  thousand  years  have 
passed  and  none  has  reigned,  or  served, 
or  dreamed  who  has  so  touched  and 
moulded  human  life.  He  is  the  ideal — 
the  example — the  greatest  unalterable, 
wholesome,  growing  influence  in  a 
world  of  biood  and  tears.  Books,  on  his 
life  fill  libraries;  the  name  of  Pharaohs, 


Caesars,  emperors,  kings  of  all  ages  that 
have  come  and  gone  are  but  ghosts  upon 
a  printed  page.  Their  legions  dust 
upon  the  land;  their  proud  armadas 
rust  upon  an  ocean  floor." 

"But  this  one  solitary  life,  surpasses 
all  in  power.  Its  influence  is  the  one 
remaining  hope  of  future  years." 

In  a  Roman  court,  nearly  two  thou- 
sand years  ago,  the  skeptic  Pontius 
Pilate  demanded  of  Jesus:  "Art  thou  a 
king?" 

Jesus  answered:  "To  this  end  was  I 
born,  and  for  this  cause  came  I  into  the 
world,  that  I  should  bear  witness  unto 
the  truth." 

The  perplexed  Pilate  muttered:  "What 
is  truth?"  (John  18:37-38.) 

The  truth,  my  brothers  and  sisters 
and  friends  is, — and  I  say  it  in  all 
solemnity — it  is  my  witness:  Jesus, 
the  man  of  Galilee,  is  Christ,  the  Son  of 
the  Living  God. 

Pilate  spoke  again:  "What  shall  I  do 
with  this  man?" 

What  he  did  is  history.  Now  twenty 
centuries  later — what  will  you,  my  lis- 
tening brothers,  sisters  and  friends,  do 
with  this  man? 

Speaking  for  myself,  I  have  accepted 
him  as  the  Son  of  God. 

He  is  the  living  Son  of  the  Living 
God — that  is  my  testimony — my  wit- 
ness— and  I  declare  it  boldly,  yet 
humbly,  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ. 
Amen. 

President  David  O.  McKay: 

He  to  whom  we  have  just  listened 
is  Elder  William  J.  Critchlow,  Jr.,  As- 
sistant to  the  Council  of  the  Twelve. 
We  shall  now  hear  from  Elder  Mark  E. 
Petersen  of  the  Council  of  the  Twelve. 


ELDER  MARK  E.  PETERSEN 

Of  the  Council  of  the  Twelve  Apostles 


With  you,  my  brothers  and  sisters,  I 
have  been  very  deeply  impressed  by  the 
conference  session  this  morning.  I  do 
not  know  when  I  have  been  so  deeply 
touched  by  the  words  of  a  prophet  of 
God  as  I  have  been  this  morning  by 
the  remarkable  address  of  our  President. 

I  love  this  President.  He  is  the  prophet 
of  Almighty  God.  I  bear  you  my  solemn 


testimony  he  is  the  prophet,  seer,  and 
revelator  of  the  Almighty  for  us  today, 
and  I  testify  to  you  that  if  we  follow  in 
his  footsteps  and  accept  his  teachings  the 
Lord  will  bless  us  and  prosper  us  and 
guide  us  throughout  our  days. 

And  I  have  been  so  deeply  touched, 
with  you,  by  these  other  two  addresses 
that  we  heard.    I  am  so  grateful  for 


14 

Friday,  October  9 

these  testimonies  pertaining  to  the 
Savior  of  the  world.  I  love  Jesus  Christ. 
I  love  him  as  my  Redeemer  and  my 
Savior.  I  know  that  you  love  him  like- 
wise, but  I  know  that  our  love  for  him 
is  interpreted  strictly  in  terms  of  our 
service  to  him.  "He  that  hath  my  com- 
mandments, and  keepeth  them,  he  it  is 
that  loveth  me."  (John  14:21.)  So  said 
the  Savior. 

I  would  like  to  talk  with  you  today 
in  a  projection  of  some  of  the  ideas 
presented  to  us  by  President  McKay. 
These  words  that  he  gave  us,  that  we 
must  be  preachers  of  the  Word,  and 
be  evangelists  for  the  Lord,  are  so  filled 
with  meaning  for  us  all.  I  hope  each 
one  of  us  will  take  these  words  to  heart. 
Each  one  of  us  is  a  minister.  Each  one 
of  us  is  an  evangelist  for  Christ.  Where 
is  your  ministry? 

I  would  like  to  talk  with  you  about 
your  ministry  among  your  own  children, 
because  you  are  ministers  of  the  Lord 
unto  your  children,  and  if  you  will  do 
your  duty  by  your  children,  you  will  be 
as  saviors  on  Mount  Zion  to  them.  But 
if  you  fail  in  your  responsibility  in  serv- 
ing the  Lord  pertaining  to  your  children, 
they  may  go  astray,  and  the  Lord  has 
said  that  their  sins  shall  be  upon  the 
heads  of  the  parents. 

A  few  days  ago  I  received  a  letter.  It 
is  like  some  other  letters  I  have  received, 
and  I  would  like  to  read  a  part  of  this 
letter  to  you.  It  comes  from  a  mother. 
She  says:  "I  have  a  daughter  who  is 
15.  Her  boy  friend  is  16.  They 
have  been  going  steady  for  over  a  year. 
We  have  just  now  learned  that  they  are 
in  serious  trouble.  For  the  first  few 
months  of  their  friendship  they  dated 
only  occasionally.  Then  they  decided 
to  'go  steady.'  That  was  the  beginning 
of  their  trouble.  It  seemed  they  were 
always  in  each  other's  company.  Now 
my  little  15-year-old  girl  is  soon  to 
become  a  mother,  and  we  are  all  just 
broken-hearted." 

This  letter  is  typical  of  a  nation-wide 
problem,  one  which  has  become  of  major 
concern  to  both  federal  and  local  offi- 
cials, and  which  poses  a  difficult  situa- 
tion for  school  executives  in  many  parts 
of  the  nation.  It  is  a  situation  which  is 
forcing  an  increasing  number  of  young 
people  into  child  marriages  and  child 
divorces,  with  broken  hearts  and  broken 
lives,  and  the  problem  is  a  growing  one. 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


First  Day 

In  the  September  6,  1959  issue  of 
Parade  magazine  there  appeared  an 
article  with  pictures  discussing  this 
problem.  It  was  entitled,  "Married 
Teen-agers."  One  of  the  pictures  showed 
a  17-year-old  mother  of  triplets.  The 
article  discussed  conditions  in  Dallas, 
Texas,  and  reported  that  in  the  schools 
of  that  city  there  are  480  married  chil- 
dren: 459  in  senior  high  schools;  12  in 
junior  high  schools;  and  9  in  elementary 
schools. 

The  Family  Service  Society  of  San 
Bernardino  County  in  California  re- 
ports that  from  the  year  1940  to  1958 
the  number  of  marriages  involving  two 
teen-agers  increased  twelve  times,  and 
the  marriages  involving  one  teen-ager 
increased  six  times.  The  average  age 
of  these  children  is  17  for  girls  and 
18  for  boys,  but  many  of  them  involve 
13,  14,  and  15  year-old  girls,  and  14, 
15,  and  16  year-old  boys. 

The  U.S.  News  &  World  Report  for 
December  12,  1958  reports  that  there 
are  child  mothers,  some  married  and 
some  not,  in  twenty-two  of  the  twenty- 
three  high  schools  in  the  city  of  Wash- 
ington, D.  C,  as  well  as  in  four  of  the 
elementary  schools  of  that  city. 

The  Associated  Press,  in  a  nationally 
published  article  written  out  of  Wash- 
ington by  Roger  Greene,  dated  August  9 
of  this  year,  reports:  "An  all-time  record 
of  babies  born  out  of  wedlock — more 
than  200,000  a  year — has  set  off  a  new 
storm  of  controversy  over  ebbing  stand- 
ards of  American  morality.  .  .  .  Latest 
figures  show  the  rate  of  such  births  per 
1,000  unmarried  females  has  tripled  in 
the  last  two  decades,  with  a  particularly 
alarming  rise  among  teen-age  girls.  .  .  . 
5,000  illegitimate  babies  are  born  each 
year  to  girls  under  15.  .  .  .  A  tragic  by- 
product is  that  at  least  20,000  young 
unwed  mothers  sell  their  babies  on  the 
'black  market'  annually,  with  price  tags 
ranging  from  $1,500  to  $3,000." 

Life  magazine  recently  carried  an 
article  on  this  trend  toward  child  mar- 
riages resulting  from  the  present  dating 
tendencies  of  American  children.  After 
showing  what  leads  up  to  these  tragic 
marriages,  the  article  discussed  the  di- 
vorces which  result.  It  quoted  Judge 
Willard  Gatling  of  Charlotte,  North 
Carolina  on  the  subject.  Said  the 
judge:  "Teen-age  marriage  has  almost 


ELDER  MARK  E.  PETERSEN 


15 


no  possibility  of  succeeding.  Ninety 
percent  are  total  failures." 

The  fact  is  that  neither  the  boy  nor 
the  girl  at  this  tender  age  is  in  any  way 
prepared  for  marriage.  The  boy  and  girl 
want  what  they  think  is  the  fun,  but 
they  do  not  want  the  responsibility. 
Said  one  youngster  quoted  in  Life  maga- 
zine: "I'm  a  party  boy.  I  just  ain't  cut 
out  to  be  married." 

What  are  the  reasons  for  these  early 
child  marriages?  Why  do  we  have  so 
many  of  these  adolescent  tragedies?  Let 
me  list  a  few  of  the  reasons. 

1.  Early  dating.  Unfortunately  this 
early  dating  is  often  encouraged  by  par- 
ents, school  officials,  and  occasionally 
by  some  church  groups.  Children  are 
actually  urged  at  times  to  date  when 
they  are  but  11,  12,  and  13  years  of  age. 

2.  Early  dating  soon  grows  into  early 
steady  dating.  Some  go  steady  at  13 
and  14,  while  many  do  so  at  15  and  16. 

3.  Steady  dating  is  encouraged  by 
steady  dancing,  where  one  boy  dances 
with  one  girl  all  evening. 

4.  Early  steady  dating  demands  the 
use  of  automobiles.  In  North  Carolina, 
where  one  study  was  conducted  it  was 
learned  that  many  ninth  grade  girls, 
13  and  14  years  old,  dated  only  boys 
with  cars,  and  many  of  those  boys  were 
under  16,  which  is  the  legal  driving 
age.  One  13-year-old  boy  said,  "I  asked 
a  girl  of  my  age  for  a  date.  She  asked 
me  if  I  drove  a  car.  I  said  no.  'Well,' 
she  said,  'come  back  and  ask  me  when 
you  do.' " 

5.  Early  steady  dating  and  the  free 
use  of  automobiles  by  children  lead  to 
early  intimacies  and  immorality.  Said 
one  girl  who  was  asked  about  this  sub- 
ject: "We  loved  each  other  so  much, 
and  we  were  together  just  all  the  time. 
And  there's  not  much  to  do,  you  know — 
the  drive-in  movies,  and  the  movies 
downtown,  and  that's  about  all.  So 
after  you've  seen  all  the  movies,  you 
just  park  the  car  and  if  you're  in  love — 
well,  that's  it." 

6.  Early  intimacies  bring  early  child 
marriages. 

7.  Child  marriages  bring  on  divorce, 
as  Judge  Gatling  said,  in  ninety  percent 
of  the  cases. 

Writing  in  Better  Homes  and  Gardens 
magazine  recently,  Howard  Williams 
discussed  the  great  moral  breakdown  of 
the  so-called  "enlightened  era,"  and 


said:  "Promiscuity,  illegitimacy,  heart- 
break, and  misery  are  all  that  the  en- 
lightened era  has  brought  us.  Let's  put 
an  end  to  them." 

But  how  can  we  put  an  end  to  them? 
In  order  to  do  so  we  must  see  the  prob- 
lem clearly.  To  help  us  in  our  study 
permit  me  to  ask  some  pointed  questions 
of  you  as  parents. 

1.  How  early  should  young  people 
date?  Do  you  think  it  is  wise  for  12 
and  13  and  14  year-old  children  to  date? 

2.  Should  schools  or  other  public  or- 
ganizations sponsor  dances  for  early 
teens  and  require  that  only  couples 
come?  Should  schoolteachers  force  early 
dating  upon  these  youngsters?  By  what 
right  do  they  exclude  children  from 
school-sponsored  socials  because  they  or 
their  parents  oppose  dating  at  this  early 
age? 

3.  At  what  age  should  girls  begin 
wearing  lipstick  and  dressing  and  acting 
like  grown-ups?  At  12  or  13,  or  even 
younger?  This  may  seem  like  a  trivial 
thing,  but  does  not  the  early  use  of  lip- 
stick mean  an  early  invitation  to  dating, 
and  does  not  early  dating  so  often  lead 
to  early  tragedy? 

4.  Should  little  boys  and  girls  kiss  and 
neck?  The  youngsters  themselves  should 
think  carefully  about  that  question.  They 
may  kid  themselves  into  thinking  that 
early  necking  is  a  sign  that  they  have 
now  grown  up.  But  is  it?  In  reality  it 
is  but  the  first  step  to  the  more  serious 
and  tragic  petting  which  drags  so  many 
13,  14,  15,  and  16  year-old  children 
down  into  a  loss  of  virtue  and  into  forced 
marriages  or  illegal  operations. 

5.  When  should  young  people  begin 
going  steady?  Should  it  be  while  they 
are  yet  in  junior  and  senior  high  school? 
Or  should  steady  dating  be  reserved  for 
the  time  when  young  people  are  actually 
considering  marriage,  and  are  old 
enough  to  consider  it  sensibly  and 
realistically,  and  are  capable  of  carry- 
ing on  the  responsibilities  of  marriage? 

6.  After  their  first  ruinous  experience 
in  child  marriage  and  child  divorce,  do 
the  young  people  consider  that  in  the 
future  they  might  desire  a  good  mar- 
riage, a  permanent  one,  with  a  respect- 
able and  well-established  partner?  And 
do  they  consider  that  when  they  come 
to  that  age,  the  good  fellows  and  the 
desirable  girls  may  not  wish  to  marry 
someone  else's  castoff? 


16 

Friday,  October  9 

What  are  some  of  the  remedies  for 
this  situation?  First  and  foremost  I 
believe  that  it  lies  in  large  part  in  the 
parents'  assuming  their  proper  role  as 
guardians  of  their  children.  Parents 
need  not  forever  be  slaves  to  the  philos- 
ophy that  they  must  obey  their  children 
in  every  whim.  Parents  must  assume 
the  position  of  leadership  in  the  family. 
They  must  make  the  basic  decisions  of 
family  life  and  not  leave  these  decisions 
to  the  spoiled  children  of  the  household. 

In  an  article  in  a  recent  issue  of  This 
Week  magazine,  under  the  caption, 
"Don't  Let  Them  Grow  up  Too  Fast," 
the  author  referred  to  a  study  made  in 
North  Carolina,  where  parents  got  to- 
gether to  slow  down  early  dating  and 
early  marriage  in  that  state.  The  par- 
ents formed  a  league  to  do  so.  The 
article  said:  "The  kids  themselves  ap- 
prove of  the  slow-down  program.  They 
don't  want  to  be  pushed  into  adult- 
hood. And  far  from  resenting  clearcut 
rules  and  regulations  they  appre- 
ciate guidance  and  discipline. 

"One  14  year-old  girl  said:  'Since  my 
parents  joined  the  league,  they've  begun 
telling  me  what  I  can  do  and  what  I 
can't  do,  and  frankly,  it's  a  big  load  off 
my  mind.  And  anyway,  isn't  that  what 
parents  are  for?'" 

Parents  must  screen  the  playmates  and 
dating  partners  of  their  children.  Par- 
ents must  decide  when  the  child  is  old 
enough  to  date.  Parents  must  provide 
chaperonage  for  early  social  activities 
of  their  children.  Parents  must  make 
certain  that  their  children  have  a  proper 
conception  of  true  values,  moral,  eco- 
nomic, and  religious. 

It  is  an  interesting  thing  that  studies 
made  in  the  Family  Service  Agency  of 
San  Bernardino  showed  that  among  di- 
vorcees forty-three  percent  never  went 
to  church  at  all;  thirty-five  percent  went 
occasionally;  and  only  twenty-two  per- 
cent attended  church  with  any  regular- 
ity. 

Parents  must  decide  on  the  use  of 
the  family  car  by  their  youngsters.  In 
this  connection  they  must  be  obedient 
to  the  law,  and  not  permit  their  chil- 
dren to  drive  until  they  reach  legal  age. 

They  might  also  have  in  mind  the 
paragraph  about  automobiles  contained 
in  an  article  by  Jacob  M.  Braude,  circuit 
court  judge  in  Chicago,  who  listed  the 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


First  Day 

fifteen  chief  causes  of  juvenile  de- 
linquency, and  said: 

"A  boy  or  a  girl  under  21  has  no  busi- 
ness owning  a  car,  period.  These  young 
people  simply  don't  have  the  sense  of 
moral  and  social  responsibility  that 
should  go  hand  in  hand  with  the  owner- 
ship of  an  automobile. 

"Now  I  don't  mean  by  this  that  it  is 
wrong  for  properly  licensed  boys  or  girls 
to  drive  the  family  car  under  effective 
parental  supervision.  .  .  .  But  the  key 
to  the  automobile  problem  is  proper 
adult  supervision — and  this  is  difficult, 
indeed,  when  the  juvenile  himself  owns 
the  car.  Youngsters  who  buy  automo- 
biles legitimately  are  faced  with  the 
constant  drain  of  buying  gas  and  main- 
taining the  car,  a  problem  that  too  many 
of  them  solve  with  a  syphon  hose  or 
money  stolen  from  home.  A  large  per- 
centage of  the  sex  offenses  can  also  be 
traced  directly  to  juvenile  ownership 
of  cars." 

Parents  must  be  exemplary  themselves. 
How  can  they  expect  their  children  to 
respect  them  if  they  themselves  are  not 
respectable,  or  if  they  themselves  are 
not  obedient  to  law  and  order?  How 
can  parents  expect  their  children  to  ac- 
cept their  discipline  if  the  parents  refuse 
to  discipline  themselves? 

And  then  parents,  as  adult  citizens 
and  taxpayers,  must  express  themselves 
on  school  problems  which  affect  their 
own  children.  They  must  become  vocal 
and  active  members  of  parent-teacher 
groups  and  other  organizations  which 
can  sway  opinion  and  policy  with  respect 
to  the  social  life  of  their  children  at 
school.  Parents  must  co-operate  with 
law  and  enforcement  officers  in  their 
efforts  to  preserve  law  and  order  in  their 
communities. 

Parents  must  develop  good  character 
in  their  children,  a  love  of  righteousness, 
faith,  a  respect  for  other  people,  and 
they  must  help  their  children  to  over- 
come selfishness,  and  to  live  for  the 
future,  and  not  for  the  momentary  lusts 
or  so-called  pleasures  of  today. 

Does  it  seem  that  I  lay  too  much  upon 
the  parents?  Not  when  you  realize  that 
the  parents  hold  the  key  to  the  situation. 

The  Boy  Scouts  of  America  engaged 
the  Institute  of  Social  Research  of  the 
University  of  Michigan  to  make  a  study 
of  adolescent  young  people.  That  study 
showed  that  the  vast  majority  of  young 


ELDER  MARK  E.  PETERSEN 


17 


people — ninety-four  percent — desire  and 
expect  that  their  parents  will  provide 
leadership  for  them  and  give  them 
guidance;  ninety-five  percent  said  they 
are  willing  to  take  parents'  rule  on  what 
time  to  come  in  at  night;  eighty-seven 
percent  are  willing  to  accept  their  par- 
ents' advice  pertaining  to  money;  sev- 
enty-six percent  accept  their  parents' 
guidance  in  personal  problems;  sixty-two 
percent  accept  their  parents'  advice  on 
how  to  act  when  out  in  a  crowd;  ninety 
percent  believe  that  when  parents  make 
rules,  those  rules  are  for  the  benefit  of 
the  youngsters,  and  not  for  the  con- 
venience of  the  parents. 

But  the  survey  also  showed  a  tragic 
note — the  parents  do  not  live  up  to  the 
expectations  of  the  youngsters.  They 
fail  to  provide  the  leadership  their  own 
children  expect  of  them. 

When  the  study  endeavored  to  find 
out  how  many  parents  plan  family 
activities  to  include  the  children,  it  was 
discovered  that  only  seventeen  percent 
provide  such  activities  regularly;  sixty 
percent  only  occasionally;  and  twenty- 
two  percent  not  at  all. 

All  of  this  points  up  the  wisdom  of 
the  Lord  in  laying  upon  the  parents  the 
responsibility  of  rearing  and  training 
their  own  children,  and  adding  that  if 
they  fail  to  do  so,  the  sin  be  upon  the 
head  of  the  parents. 

Now  I  ask  you — do  you  want  an  early 
child  marriage  for  your  youngster,  with 
only  a  ten  percent  chance  of  that  mar- 
riage being  successful?  Do  you  want  to 
take  the  chance  on  immorality  that 
forcefully  confronts  you  if  you  permit 
your  child  to  date  early,  and  especially 
if  you  permit  the  child  to  date  steadily? 

Are  you  willing  to  assume  the  full 
guardianship  of  your  own  child,  and 
protect  that  child  from  its  own  whims 
and  the  whims  of  others? 

Are  you  willing  to  stand  at  the  cross- 
roads with  your  child  and  protect  him 


or  her  from  the  temptation  and  degrada- 
tion that  usually  accompanies  early  and 
steady  dating?  Are  you  willing  to  do 
for  your  child  what  the  Lord  asks  you 
to  do,  to  rear  that  child  as  a  faithful 
Latter-day  Saint,  a  good  citizen,  and  give 
him  an  opportunity  to  work  out  his  fu- 
ture successfully? 

You  as  parents  hold  the  key  to  the 
situation.  You  are  the  custodians  and 
the  guardians  of  your  own  children.  If 
you  do  not  guard  and  protect  and  rear 
them,  who  will? 

I  humbly  and  earnestly  pray  that  we 
will  assume  the  responsibility  which  is 
ours,  and  love  our  children  well  enough 
to  train  them  and  guide  them,  and  give 
to  them  the  leadership  and  direction 
which  most  young  people  expect  of  their 
parents,  and  this  is  my  humble  and 
earnest  prayer,  in  the  name  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ.  Amen. 

President  David  O.  McKay: 

He  to  whom  we  have  just  listened  is 
Elder  Mark  E.  Petersen  of  the  Council 
of  the  Twelve.  The  Relief  Society  Sing- 
ing Mothers  will  now  favor  us  with, 
"Incline  Your  Ear  and  Come  Unto  Me," 
conducted,  as  announced,  by  Sister 
Florence  Jepperson  Madsen.  The  clos- 
ing prayer  will  be  offered  by  Elder 
Carroll  William  Smith,  president  of 
the  Klamath  Stake,  after  which  this 
Conference  will  stand  adjourned  until 
two  o'clock  this  afternoon.  The  Singing 
Mothers  will  again  be  with  us. 


The  Singing  Mothers  sang  the  selec- 
tion, "Incline  Your  Ear  and  Come  Unto 
Me." 

Elder  Carroll  William  Smith,  presi- 
dent of  the  Klamath  Stake,  offered  the 
closing  prayer. 

Conference  adjourned  until  2  o'clock 
p.m. 


FIRST  DAY 
AFTERNOON  MEETING 


Conference  reconvened  Friday  after- 
noon, October  9,  at  2:00  p.m. 

President  David  O.  McKay  presided, 
and  conducted  the  services. 

The  Relief  Society  Singing  Mothers  of 
the  Jordan  Valley  Region,  with  Florence 
Jepperson  Madsen  conducting,  provided 
the  choral  music  for  this  session.  Elder 
Frank  W.  Asper  was  at  the  organ. 

President  David  O.  McKay: 

Members  of  the  Church  are  convened 
in  the  Tabernacle  on  Temple  Square  in 
Salt  Lake  City  in  the  second  session  of 
the  One  Hundred  Twenty-Ninth  Semi- 
Annual  Conference  of  the  Church.  This 
session  of  the  Conference  will  be  broad- 
cast as  a  public  service  over  the  televi- 
sion and  radio  stations  throughout  the 
west.  These  services  are  also  being 
broadcast  in  the  Assembly  and  in 
Barratt  Hall  by  television. 

We  are  favored  again  this  afternoon 
by  the  persence  of  the  Relief  Society 
Singing  Mothers  of  the  Jordan  Valley 
Region,  with  Florence  Jepperson  Mad- 
sen  conducting,  and  Elder  Frank  W. 
Asper  at  the  organ. 

We  shall  begin  these  services  by  the 
Relief  Society  Singing  Mothers  render- 


ing, "Lord,  Hear  Our  Prayer."  The 
opening  prayer  will  be  offered  by  Elder 
Zelph  Y.  Erekson,  formerly  president  of 
the  Australian  Mission. 


The  Singing  Mothers  sang  "Lord,  Hear 
Our  Prayer." 

Elder  Zelph  Y.  Erekson,  formerly 
president  of  the  Australian  Mission,  of- 
fered the  opening  prayer. 

President  David  O.  McKay: 

The  Relief  Society  Singing  Mothers 
will  now  favor  us  with,  "Come,  Ye 
Blessed  of  My  Father,"  conducted  by 
Sister  Florence  Jepperson  Madsen,  after 
which  President  Joseph  Fielding  Smith 
will  speak  to  us. 


Singing  by  the  Singing  Mothers, 
"Come,  Ye  Blessed  of  My  Father." 

President  David  O.  McKay: 

President  Joseph  Fielding  Smith  of  the 
Council  of  the  Twelve  will  be  our  first 
speaker.  He  will  be  followed  by  Elder 
Alvin  R.  Dyer,  Assistant  to  the  Twelve. 


PRESIDENT  JOSEPH  FIELDING  SMITH 

Of  the  Council  of  the  Twelve  Apostles 


To  stand  before  this  great  body,  mem- 
bers of  the  Church,  mostly  priesthood, 
is  something  that  creates  in  my  soul  a 
feeling  of  awe  and  of  responsibility.  I 
trust  that  I  may  have  the  guidance  of 
the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  in  the  words  that 
I  may  utter.  I  am  very  grateful  for 
what  was  said  in  our  meeting  this 
morning  by  our  President  and  those  who 
followed  after  him.  I  am  sure  that  we 
have  been  edified  in  the  remarks  that 
have  been  made,  and  I  feel  my  de- 
pendence upon  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  to 
aid  me  in  saying  something  that  might 
be  profitable  on  this  occasion. 

There  may  be  some  who  wonder  why 
we  hold  general  conference  twice  a 
year,  bring  our  people,  particularly  the 


presiding  officers,  together  from  all  parts 
of  the  Church.  But,  brethren,  I  do  not 
know  what  we  would  do  if  this  privilege 
should  be  withdrawn  from  us.  I  have 
wondered  what,  in  the  days  of  Peter, 
James,  and  John  and  following,  the 
condition  might  have  been  if  they  could 
have  met  quarterly  and  semi-annually 
in  conferences.  Perhaps  the  apostasy 
would  have  been  postponed,  if  not  al- 
together avoided.  But  those  privileges 
were  not  theirs. 

I  think  I  feel  the  importance  of  these 
gatherings,  and  the  bringing  together 
the  men  who  hold  the  priesthood  par- 
ticularly, to  receive  counsel,  to  be  en- 
couraged, and  to  return  to  their  stakes 
renewed  in  their  spirits.    We  can  reach 


PRESIDENT  JOSEPH  FIELDING  SMITH 


19 


our  people  today  better  than  they  could 
anciently.  We  have  many  facilities  that 
they  did  not  have,  and  our  people  are 
naturally  under  present  conditions, 
drawn  closer  together  than  they  were  in 
former  days. 

And  now,  my  good  brethren  and  sis- 
ters, what  is  our  duty?  To  keep  the 
commandments  of  God.  And  we  are 
instructed  to  do  that  in  our  quarterly 
conferences,  in  our  general  conferences, 
and  in  all  the  meetings  that  are  held  in 
the  various  stakes  and  wards  of  Zion. 
Even  as  it  is,  there  are  conditions  arising 
which  should  cause  us  to  be  alert,  on 
our  guard,  diligent,  persevering  in  the 
keeping  of  the  commandments  of  the 
Lord,  and  in  instructing  the  members 
of  the  Church.  By  all  means,  this  is 
needed.  Satan  is  not  dead. 

I  think  frequently  of  the  words  of  the 
Lord  to  John  when  he  said  that  Satan 
raged  because  "he  knoweth,  that  he 
hath  but  a  short  time."  (Rev.  12:12.) 
And  he  is  more  active  today,  perhaps, 
than  ever  before  in  the  history  of  the 
world.  His  emissaries  get  among  the 
Latter-day  Saints.  Some  of  them  are 
very  cunning  and  crafty.  Some  of  them 
at  one  time  had  the  light  and  under- 
standing of  the  gospel  but  have  lost  it. 
They  come  among  our  Latter-day  Saints, 
and  if  we  are  not  prepared  by  our  faith, 
by  our  obedience,  and  knowledge  of  the 
gospel,  many  of  us  stand  in  danger  of 
being  led  astray. 

The  Prophet  Joseph  Smith  made  the 
statement  that  a  man  cannot  be  saved 
in  ignorance.  When  he  said  man,  he 
meant  mankind.  Ignorance  of  what? 
Of  the  saving  principles  of  the  gospel 
of  Jesus  Christ.  Now  we  are  taught 
faith  in  God  our  Father  and  in  his  Son 
Jesus  Christ.  We  are  taught  to  study, 
make  ourselves  familiar  with  his  life 
when  he  was  upon  the  face  of  the  earth, 
why  he  came,  the  nature  of  his  work, 
how  it  concerns  us,  to  prepare  ourselves 
by  our  study  and  by  our  faith  to  stand 
worthy  before  him  in  the  keeping  of  his 
commandments. 

We  read  in  the  Doctrine  and  Cove- 
nants where  the  Lord  says  that  all  those 
who  repent  and  are  baptized  are  to  re- 
ceive the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost  by  the 
laying  on  of  hands.  Now  we  baptize 
our  children  at  the  age  of  eight  years — 
that  is  the  age  that  the  Lord  has  desig- 
nated as  the  age  of  accountability.  Little 


children  before  that  age  are  redeemed, 
should  they  die,  without  any  act  upon 
their  part.  One  of  the  most  wicked 
doctrines  ever  taught  in  this  world  was 
that  little  children  were  born  in  sin, 
contaminated,  and  have  to  be  cleansed 
from  that  sin  for  which  they  themselves 
were  not  responsible.  Little  children 
were  innocent  in  the  beginning,  the  Lord 
says,  and  by  his  decree  until  they  reach 
the  age  of  accountability  they  are  free 
from  sin,  but  from  that  age  on  they  are 
under  the  necessity  of  baptism  for  the 
remission  of  sins,  and  entrance  into  the 
Church  and  kingdom  of  God. 

Now,  we  are  promised  that  when  we 
are  baptized,  if  we  are  true  and  faithful, 
we  will  have  the  guidance  of  the  Holy 
Ghost.  What  is  the  purpose  of  it?  To 
teach  us,  to  direct  us,  to  bear  witness 
to  us  of  the  saving  principles  of  the  gos- 
pel of  Jesus  Christ.  Every  child  old 
enough  to  be  baptized,  and  who  is  bap- 
tized, is  entitled  to  the  guidance  of  the 
Holy  Ghost.  I  have  heard  people  say 
that  a  little  child  eight  years  of  age 
could  not  understand.  I  know  better 
than  that.  I  had  a  testimony  of  this 
truth  when  I  was  eight  years  old,  coming 
through  the  Holy  Ghost.  I  have  had  it 
ever  since. 

We  are  commanded  also  to  bring  up 
our  children  in  light  and  truth,  to  teach 
them  the  fundamental  principles  of  the 
gospel,  so  that  when  they  grow  older 
they  will  understand,  and  have  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  gospel,  a  testimony  of  its 
truth,  and  be  prepared  to  resist  the 
persuasions  and  doctrines  and  teachings 
of  those  who  would  destroy  that  belief. 

I  am  grateful  for  our  Primary  organiza- 
tions and  our  Sunday  Schools,  and  the 
other  organizations  of  the  Church,  but 
brethren  and  sisters,  the  Lord  has  not 
placed  all  the  responsibility  upon  our 
auxiliary  organizations,  nor  upon  the 
bishops  of  wards  to  teach  the  children  of 
Zion  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ.  That 
should  be  taught  them  in  their  homes. 

As  we  travel  from  stake  to  stake,  we 
discover  in  many  places  that  children 
who  are  eight  years  of  age,  nine  years 
of  age,  even  older  sometimes,  have  not 
been  baptized.  Why?  Who  has 
neglected  this?  We  cannot  blame  the 
child,  but  somebody  is  at  fault.  When 
a  child  gets  to  be  nine  or  ten  or  eleven 
or  more  years  of  age  and  has  not  been 
baptized  a  member  of  this  Church,  then 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


20 

Friday,  October  9 

someone's  at  fault.  Primarily,  I  would 
say  that  fault  is  in  the  home.  But  the 
fault  is  not  altogether  in  the  home.  The 
fault  rests  with  those  who  have  charge 
in  the  wards  of  looking  after  the  inter- 
ests of  the  young,  and  the  bishops  who 
are  to  look  after  all  the  members  of  the 
Church.  No  child  should  be  permitted 
to  go  unbaptized  after  he  or  she  reaches 
the  eighth  year,  and  when  there  is  that 
kind  of  neglect  someone  is  responsible. 

Bring  up  your  children,  my  brethren 
and  sisters,  in  light  and  truth.  Teach 
them  by  example.  Fathers  and  mothers 
have  to  set  the  example.  They  cannot 
say  to  their  children,  "You  follow  the 
teachings  of  the  Church,  but  in  our 
lives  we  are  going  to  make  exceptions." 
It  cannot  be  done,  not  properly.  You 
parents,  set  the  example.  There  should 
be  unity  in  the  home,  and  if  there  is 
unity  in  the  home,  then  there  is  likely 
to  be  unity  in  the  Church.  But  we 
begin  in  the  home. 

Now,  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  is 
the  means  of  our  salvation  and  exalta- 
tion. I  have  often  wondered  why  some 
members  of  the  Church  were  members 
of  the  Church,  because  they  do  not  live 
in  accordance  with  the  principles  of 
eternal  truth.  There  is  only  one  reason 
for  membership  in  this  Church,  as  I 
understand  it,  and  that  is  as  a  means  of 
receiving  salvation  and  exaltation  in  the 
celestial  kingdom  of  God.  If  that  is  not 
our  aim  then  why  are  we  in  the  Church? 

I  know  a  man  who  went  to  school 
when  I  went  to  school,  we  played  to- 
gether, went  to  school  together.  When 
he  grew  to  be  a  man  he  went  East  and 
became  a  scientist.  He  came  back,  and 
then  he  began  to  create  a  great  deal  of 
disturbance  in  the  Sunday  School  classes, 
questioning  the  revelations  that  had 
been  given  through  the  Prophet  Joseph 
Smith.  This  came  to  my  attention 
when  one  of  the  members  of  that  class 
came  to  me  and  said,  "This  brother 
comes  to  our  class,  and  he  is  just  a 
disturbance."  As  I  was  well  acquainted 
with  him,  I  made  it  my  duty  to  get  hold 
of  him,  and  I  asked  him  why  he  did 
those  things;  and  was  disturbing  the 
members  of  the  class. 

"Well,"  he  said,  "I  cannot  accept  all 
of  the  revelations  that  were  given  to  the 
Prophet  Joseph  Smith." 

"Are  there  any  of  them  that  you  can 
accept?" 


First  Day 

"Yes,"  he  said,  "I  can  accept  some  of 
them,"  but  he  could  not  accept  all  of 
the  doctrines  that  had  come  through 
the  revelations  of  our  Father  in  heaven 
and  his  Son  Jesus  Christ  to  the  Church. 

After  we  got  through  with  the  con- 
versation, and  I  had  a  long  conversation 
with  him,  he  said,  "Now,  I  am  going 
to  ask  you  one  favor.  Please  do  not  take 
any  step  to  have  me  excommunicated." 

I  said,  "Why  do  you  want  to  stay  in 
the  Church  when  you  are  opposing  its 
doctrines?" 

He  said,  "I  will  tell  you  why.  I  was 
raised  in  the  Church,  and  my  friends 
are  members  of  the  Church.  I  have  few 
associations  outside  of  the  Church.  If 
I  should  be  excommunicated  that  means 
that  I  should  be  cut  off  from  all  com- 
munication, all  fellowship  with  the  peo- 
ple with  whom  I  am  now  associating, 
and  I  do  not  want  that  to  happen.  So 
please  do  not  take  any  steps  to  have 
me  excommunicated." 

I  thought  there  was  some  hope  for 
him  so  I  did  not  take  any  such  step,  but 
I  did  talk  to  him  kindly  and  try  to  get 
him  to  see  the  folly  of  his  ways,  to 
repent,  and  when  he  went  to  the  classes, 
and  he  could  go  to  the  classes,  he  should 
not  go  with  that  spirit  of  defiance  or 
opposition  to  the  doctrines  which  the 
others  believed.  I  said,  "If  you  don't 
believe  them,  then  keep  still  and  see 
if  you  cannot  get  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord 
so  that  you  can  accept  them." 

Well,  he  is  dead  now.  I  do  not  know 
whether  he  repented  or  not,  but  breth- 
ren, the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  is  the  most 
vital  thing  in  all  the  world  to  us.  We 
should  so  live  that  we  can  accept  every 
word  that  proceedeth  forth  from  the 
mouth  of  God,  and  that  is  a  command- 
ment from  him. 

Now  if  we  have  the  right  spirit,  that 
is  what  we  are  going  to  do.  If  there  is 
any  doctrine  or  principle  connected  with 
the  teachings  of  the  Church  that  we 
do  not  understand,  then  let  us  get  on 
our  knees.  Let  us  go  before  the  Lord 
in  the  spirit  of  prayer,  of  humility,  and 
ask  that  our  minds  might  be  enlightened 
that  we  may  understand.  This  Church 
is  not  teaching  false  doctrine.  All  the 
revelations  given  to  the  Prophet  Joseph 
Smith  are  absolutely  true.  They  are 
given  for  our  salvation,  for  our  knowl- 
edge, for  our  understanding,  that  we 
may  draw  nearer  and  nearer  to  our 


ELDER  ALVIN  R.  DYER 


21 


Father  in  heaven,  and  be  found  worthy 
before  him  and  eventually  have  the 
privilege  of  coming  into  his  presence, 
there  to  be  crowned  as  sons  and  daugh- 
ters of  God,  receiving  the  fulness  of  his 
kingdom. 

The  Lord  bless  you,  my  good  brethren 
and  sisters,  I  pray  in  the  name  of  Jesus 
Christ.  Amen. 


President  David  O.  McKay: 

President  Joseph  Fielding  Smith  of  the 
Council  of  the  Twelve  has  just  spoken 
to  us.  He  will  be  followed  by  Elder 
Alvin  R.  Dyer,  Assistant  to  the  Twelve. 
Brother  Dyer  will  be  followed  by  Elder 
Hanks. 


ELDER  ALVIN  R.  DYER 

Assistant  to  the  Council  of  the  Twelve  Apostles 


My  dear  brothers  and  sisters,  I  feel  it 
is  a  great  privilege  to  be  in  your  presence 
here  today,  in  the  presence  of  my  Breth- 
ren, and  to  be  under  the  inspiration  and 
leadership  of  our  Prophet  and  those  who 
are  associated  with  him  in  the  Presi- 
dency of  the  Church,  and  I  have  felt 
here  this  day  the  power  and  the  inspira- 
tion of  the  Spirit  as  it  has  been  mani- 
fested in  what  has  been  said. 

A  number  of  years  ago  there  was  a 
noted  historian  sent  to  Salt  Lake  City, 
to  study  the  customs  and  the  way  of 
living  of  the  Latter-day  Saints.  He  re- 
mained here  many  years  among  our 
people  and  published  a  book  in  the  year 
of  1922  telling  of  his  findings.  I  should 
like  to  read  a  paragraph  or  two  from 
what  he  said  about  our  people.  He 
never  knew  the  Prophet  Joseph  Smith. 
He  could  only  tell  of  his  work  by  the 
results  as  it  was  manifest  among  the 
people  who  were  guided  by  the  revela- 
tions from  God  which  their  prophet  had 
received.    I  quote: 

"Who  can  explain  Joseph  Smith? 
What  are  the  'revelations  from  God'? 
What  is  their  test?  Is  it  not  beyond  all 
reason  that  a  lad,  born  of  poor  parents, 
devoid  of  any  save  the  commonest  edu- 
cation, too  poor  to  buy  books,  should 
have  accomplished  what  he  did  in  less 
than  forty  years,  unless  there  was  some 
great  reason  for  it? 

"Let  anyone,  even  a  literary  genius, 
after  forty  years  of  life,  try  to  write  a 
companion  volume  to  the  Book  of  Mor- 
mon, and  then  almost  daily  for  a  num- 
ber of  years  give  out  'revelations'  that 
internally  harmonize  one  with  another, 
at  the  same  time  formulate  a  system  of 
doctrine  for  a  Church,  introduce  many 
new  principles,  resuscitate  extinct  priest- 
hoods, and  formulate  a  system  of  Church 


government  which  has  no  superior  upon 
earth  ...  to  deny  such  a  man  a  wonder- 
ful power  over  the  human  heart  and 
intellect  is  absurd.  Only  fanatical 
prejudice  can  ignore  it.  However,  he 
may  be  accounted  for  by  the  reasoning 
mind,  Joseph  Smith,  the  Mormon 
Prophet,  was  one  of  the  wonders  of  his 
time."  (George  Wharton  James.) 

One  of  the  great  distinguishing  char- 
acteristics of  the  Latter-day  Saint  people 
is  that  they  are  governed  by  revelations 
from  God,  and  whether  people  come  into 
our  midst,  or  whether  we  go  out  into 
the  world,  this  characteristic  remains  a 
distinguishing  factor. 

I  recall  that  some  few  years  ago  in 
one  of  the  communities  of  Oklahoma  a 
minister,  in  an  effort  to  discredit  the 
effects  of  our  missionary  work,  in  that 
area  had  an  article  placed  in  a  daily 
newspaper,  from  which  I  quote  a  part. 
He  said:  "The  first  thing  that  you  should 
know  is  that  these  missionaries  are  a 
part  of  a  church  that  claims  to  have  a 
revelation  and  a  prophet." 

How  well  he  placed  the  facts.  Yet 
it  seems  rather  strange  that  a  Christian 
minister  would  make  such  a  statement 
in  derision,  for  revelation  and  the  proph- 
ets have  ever  been  a  part  of  God's  plan 
to  convey  commandments  and  teachings 
of  righteousness  unto  his  children.  There 
are  others,  like  this  minister,  who  feel 
that  we  have  no  right  to  receive  revela- 
tion, but  if  we  do  not  receive  revelation 
for  the  guidance  and  direction  of  the 
true  Church  of  Jesus  Christ,  then  we 
do  not  have  the  oracles  of  God,  and  if 
we  do  not  have  the  oracles  of  God,  then 
we  are  not  the  people  of  God. 

But  this  is  not  the  fact,  for  over  and 
over  again  God  has  revealed  his  will 
unto  this,  his  people,  through  his  serv- 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


22 

Friday,  October  9 

ants,  the  prophets.  In  the  first  section 
of  the  Doctrine  and  Covenants,  which 
is  a  book  of  revelations  given  through 
the  Prophet  Joseph  Smith  unto  the 
Latter-day  Saints,  the  Lord  has  said: 

"Wherefore,  I  the  Lord,  knowing  the 
calamity  which  should  come  upon  the 
inhabitants  of  the  earth,  called  upon  my 
servant  Joseph  Smith,  Jun.,  and  spake 
unto  him  from  heaven,  and  gave  him 
commandments."  (D&C  1:17.) 

These  commandments  are  revelations 
from  God  which  provide  the  laws  and 
ordinances  of  the  gospel,  and  by  obedi- 
ence to  them  will  exalt  man  in  the 
presence  of  our  Heavenly  Father.  The 
Prophet  Jacob,  one  of  the  Book  of  Mor- 
mon prophets,  speaks  of  the  need  of 
revelation  in  this  manner.  He  says: 

"Behold,  great  and  marvelous  are  the 
works  of  the  Lord.  How  unsearchable 
are  the  depths  of  the  mysteries  of  him; 
and  it  is  impossible  that  man  should  find 
out  all  his  ways.  And  no  man  knoweth 
of  his  ways  save  it  be  revealed  unto  him; 
wherefore,  brethren,  despise  not  the 
revelations  of  God."  (Jacob  4:8.) 

Again  Moroni,  another  Book  of  Mor- 
mon prophet,  speaks  of  those  who  would 
deny  revelation. 

"And  again  I  speak  unto  you  who 
deny  the  revelations  of  God,  and  say 
that  they  are  done  away,  that  there  are 
no  revelations,  nor  prophecies,  nor  gifts, 
nor  healing,  nor  speaking  with  tongues, 
and  the  interpretation  of  tongues; 

"Behold  I  say  unto  you,  he  that  de- 
nieth  these  things  knoweth  not  the  gospel 
of  Christ;  yea,  he  has  not  read  the 
scriptures;  if  so,  he  does  not  understand 
them. 

"For  do  we  not  read  that  God  is  the 
same  yesterday,  today,  and  forever,  and 
in  him  there  is  no  variableness  neither 
shadow  of  changing?"  (Mormon  9:7-9.) 

The  revelations  from  God  are  a  great 
expediency  in  leading  man  unto  eternal 
life  and  exaltation.  Yet  in  every  age, 
where  God's  will  has  been  expressed 
unto  his  people,  there  have  been  those 
who  have  failed  to  obey  and  who  have 
in  some  instances  rebelled  against  the 
revealed  word  of  God. 

This  was  true  with  the  greatest  of  all 
prophets,  Christ  the  Lord.  Early  in  his 
ministry  multitudes  of  people  followed 
him  everywhere,  for  he  blessed  them, 
raised  their  dead,  and  fed  their  hunger. 


First  Day 

But,  upon  that  occasion  when  he  an- 
nounced to  them  for  the  first  time  that 
he  was  the  Son  of  God  and  that  he 
would  reveal  unto  them  the  mind  and 
will  of  the  Father,  that  he  was  the  living 
bread  sent  down  from  heaven,  they 
turned  and  walked  no  more  with  him, 
seeing  the  people  turn  from  him  because 
of  revelation,  he  turned  to  his  disciples 
and  said,  "Will  ye  go  away  also?" — but 
his  nearest  disciples  led  by  Peter,  did 
not  leave  him,  for  they  accepted  his 
revelations;  gone,  however,  were  the 
crowds  of  people  who  had  followed  him 
on  the  shores  of  Galilee  and  the  hillsides 
of  Judea.  From  that  day  forth,  save  for 
his  closest  disciples,  he  walked  alone. 

Unfortunately,  in  the  early  days  of 
the  Church  not  all  of  the  Latter-day 
Saints  accepted  the  revelations.  I  sup- 
pose that  as  each  revelation  was  given 
to  the  Prophet  Joseph  Smith,  and  it  was 
made  known  unto  the  people,  just  that 
many  more  of  the  weak  Saints  rebelled 
and  turned  away  from  the  Church.  This 
became  one  of  the  great  problems  to  our 
people  in  the  days  of  Kirtland  and 
Missouri,  for  some  of  the  members  and 
leaders  alike  opposed  and  did  all  that 
they  could  to  prevent  the  coming  forth 
of  further  revelation,  and  the  progress 
of  the  Church. 

The  Prophet  Joseph  Smith,  speaking 
of  this  at  Far  West,  had  this  to  say: 
"Many  men  will  say  I  will  never  for- 
sake you,  but  will  stand  by  you  at  all 
times,  but  the  moment  you  teach  them 
some  of  the  revelations  (mysteries)  of 
the  kingdom  of  God  that  are  retained 
in  the  heavens  and  are  to  be  revealed 
to  the  children  of  men  when  they  are 
prepared  for  them,  they  will  be  the  first 
to  stone  you  and  put  you  to  death." 

The  Prophet  continued  in  this  very 
significant  meeting  to  make  this  further 
statement:  "Would  to  God,  brethren,  I 
could  tell  you  who  I  am!  would  to  God 
I  could  tell  you  what  I  know!  but  you 
would  call  it  blasphemy,  and  there  are 
men  on  this  stand  who  would  want  to 
take  my  life."  Continuing  further,  he 
said,  "When  God  offers  a  blessing,  or 
knowledge  to  a  man,  and  he  refuses  to 
receive  it,  he  will  be  damned."  Thus 
by  the  implied  remarks  of  the  Prophet, 
the  rebellion  of  the  weak  Saints  in  the 
days  of  Kirtland  and  Missouri  con- 
tinued, yes,  even  unto  the  days  of  Nau- 
voo.    They  seemed,  unfortunately,  not 


ELDER  ALVIN  R.  DYER 


23 


to  understand  the  things  of  God,  which 
had  been  revealed. 

When  the  work  of  the  Prophet  Joseph 
Smith  was  completed,  when  he  had 
received  the  keys,  powers,  and  ordi- 
nances, and  had  conferred  them  upon 
the  heads  of  the  Quorum  of  the  Twelve, 
when  he  realized  and  sensed  that  the 
time  had  come  when  he  would  give  his 
life  for  his  work,  he  seemed  to  speak, 
upon  occasion,  more  emphatically  than 
ever  before  with  regard  to  the  truth  of 
the  revelations  which  he  received,  indi- 
cating that  there  were  those  within  the 
Church  then  who  opposed  and  did  not 
accept  all  the  revelations  which  God  had 
given  through  him.  These  were  his 
words  upon  the  memorable  occasion  of 
one  of  his  last  addresses  to  the  Saints. 

"Oh!  I  beseech  you  go  forward  and 
make  your  calling  and  election  sure — 
when  did  I  ever  teach  anything  wrong 
from  this  stand?  When  was  I  ever  con- 
founded? I  want  to  triumph  in  Israel 
before  I  depart  hence  and  am  no  more 
seen.  I  never  told  you  I  was  perfect — 
but  there  is  no  error  in  the  revelations 
which  I  have  taught."  (May  12,  1844.) 

I  have  mentioned  these  things,  my 
brethren  and  sisters,  only  in  reflection 
to  bring  it  down  to  us  today.  Can  we 
say,  with  regard  to  revelation,  in  a  simi- 
lar sense,  that  those  who  fail  in  the 
Church  today  to  accept  and  live  fully 
the  revelations  given  are  somewhat  re- 
bellious perhaps  not  in  the  same 
antagonistic  manner  which  was  mani- 
fest in  the  early  days,  but  nevertheless 
rebel  within  themselves  against  the  word 
of  the  Lord.  There  are  some  who  per- 
haps sense  the  great  value  of  these  God- 
given  truths,  yet  fail  in  their  appropria- 
tion. They  will  not  let  go  for  fear  of 
losing  something  greatly  worth  while, 
but  still  hold  back  when  it  comes  to 
fully  accepting  the  revelations  from  God. 

May  I  consider  with  you  for  a  few 
moments  some  of  the  vital  revelations 
given  through  the  Prophet  Joseph  Smith 
and  perhaps  as  we  go  back  to  our  homes 
from  this  great  conference  of  the  Church 
we  can  regenerate  in  our  own  thinking 
the  desire  to  conform  more  closely  to 
the  commandments  which  the  Lord  has 
required  of  us  through  these  revealed 
writings.  I  refer  to  a  revelation  with 
regard  to  the  magnifying  of  the  priest- 
hood found  in  section  84  and  section 
121,  given  at  Kirtland,  Ohio,  in  1832, 


and  at  Liberty,  Missouri,  in  1839,  and 
when  we  find  that  perhaps  two  thirds 
of  the  elders  who  hold  the  Melchizedek 
Priesthood,  are  found  not  to  be  in  their 
priesthood  meetings  each  Sunday  morn- 
ing, we  realize  the  need  of  greater  ad- 
herence to  this  instruction.  Would  we 
say  that  those  who  are  not  fully  living 
in  accordance  with  this  revelation  are 
perhaps  opposing  the  divine  will  of  our 
Heavenly  Father  as  it  is  expressed 
through  his  prophets? 

There  is  the  revelation  given  on  tith- 
ing and  offerings  at  Far  West,  Missouri, 
in  1838.  Would  you  say,  my  brethren 
and  sisters,  that  a  man,  especially  one 
who  holds  the  Melchizedek  Priesthood, 
and  who  does  not  pay  an  honest  tithing 
is  rebelling  against  the  revelations  of 
God? 

What  about  attendance  at  Sacrament 
meeting?  I  remember  as  a  young  man 
being  placed  in  a  bishopric,  and  of  being 
told  we  ought  to  achieve  twenty  percent 
attendance  at  Sacrament  meeting.  To- 
day the  current  average  attendance  is 
thirty-three  percent,  and  yet  each  Sun- 
day finds  sixty-seven  out  of  one  hundred 
of  our  people  not  attending  their  Sacra- 
ment meeting.  Would  you  say  that 
this  failure  to  attend,  on  the  part  of 
some,  is  something  of  a  rebellion  against 
this  revelation  given  at  Jackson  County, 
Missouri,  in  1831? 

Then  what  about  the  revelation  on 
virtue  and  the  receiving  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  given  in  Liberty  Prison  in  1839, 
when  the  Prophet  revealed  to  us  that  if 
we  would  have  the  companionship  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,  our  lives  must  be  virtu- 
ous and  we  must  live  constantly  under 
that  influence?  Would  you  say  that 
those  who  have  evil  thoughts  and  would 
permit  unclean  practices  to  come  into 
their  lives  are  opposing  the  will  and  the 
revelations  of  God  on  purity  of  life? 

There  are  still  other  revelations — the 
reiteration  of  the  Ten  Commandments 
at  Kirtland,  Ohio,  in  section  42;  the 
great  principle  of  righteous  dominion, 
in  section  121,  wherein  we  are  to  live 
with  our  fellow  men  in  kindness,  in 
long-suffering,  in  meekness,  and  love 
unfeigned,  in  the  true  spirit  of  brother- 
hood as  becomes  a  Latter-day  Saint;  the 
revelations  on  temple  work  in  sections 
124,  127,  and  128,  given  in  Nauvoo, 
Illinois,  in  1841  and  1842. 


24 

Friday,  October  9 

Are  we  doing  all  that  we  can  in  ac- 
cordance with  these  revelations,  and  if 
we  are  not  are  we  inwardly  opposing 
them?  My  brothers  and  sisters,  you  be 
the  ones  to  answer  that  for  yourselves. 

Then  there  is  this  last  one  I  will  refer 
to,  the  revelation  on  harmful  indul- 
gences— the  Word  of  Wisdom — and  we 
see  the  manifest  desire  of  many  within 
the  Church  to  twist  the  meaning  of  this 
great  revelation,  and  those  who  do  this, 
are  they  rebelling  against  the  will  of 
God  as  they  did  in  the  earlier  days? 

I  bear  record  to  you,  my  brethren  and 
sisters,  that  these  revelations  have  been 
given  to  us  for  our  enlightenment,  for 
our  growth,  that  we  may  return  to  the 
presence  of  our  Heavenly  Father.  They 
are  a  distinguishing  characteristic  of  the 
Latter-day  Saints.   We  are  to  use  them 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


First  Day 

for  our  upbuilding  and  growth  within 
the  kingdom  of  God. 

Would  it  not  be  profitable  to  re- 
view the  revelations — to  learn  afresh — to 
"know  our  duty"  and  then  where  need- 
ful adjust  our  lives  fully  to  the  laws 
and  commandments  of  God? 

I  bear  record  to  the  truthfulness  of 
the  revelations  given  to  the  Prophet 
Joseph  Smith.  In  the  name  of  Jesus 
Christ.  Amen. 

President  David  O.  McKay: 

Elder  Alvin  R.  Dyer,  Assistant  to  the 
Council  of  the  Twelve,  has  just  spoken 
to  us.  Elder  Marion  D.  Hanks  of  the 
First  Council  of  Seventy  will  now  ad- 
dress us.  He  will  be  followed  by  Elder 
John  Longden. 


ELDER  MARION  D.  HANKS 

Of  the  First  Council  of  the  Seventy 


I  seek  only  to  be  able  to  speak  the 
truth,  to  merit  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord 
which  will  direct  me  and  bless  me 
in  so  doing.  I  appreciate  the  wonderful 
sermons  which  have  been  delivered  here 
from  the  first  through  Brother  Dyer's. 

I  sat  thinking  a  moment  ago  of  my 
sainted  father  who  left  his  little  family 
and  departed  this  earth  more  than 
thirty-five  years  ago,  how  he  went  into 
the  missionary  field  at  the  call  of  the 
Lord  through  the  Brethren,  in  his  late 
'teens,  carrying  copies  of  the  Book  of 
Mormon  with  testimony  and  conviction, 
expressing  his  deepest  assurance  of  the 
validity  of  the  work  he  represented  and 
yet  without  adequate  knowledge,  per- 
haps, because  he  was  but  a  boy  and 
because  much  knowledge  now  available 
was  not  had,  to  defend  his  viewpoint  in 
the  eyes  of  the  world.  He  had  but  his 
testimony,  his  faith,  and  the  Book. 

As  President  Smith  spoke  I  marveled 
that  we  have  lived  long  enough  and 
that  we  live  in  a  time,  you  and  I,  when 
the  wise  men,  the  honest  men  of  the 
world,  are  coming  to  understand  some 
of  the  things  the  Lord  has  taught  us 
through  all  the  years  since  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  Church. 

As  President  Smith  referred  to  the  age 
of  eight  and  his  faith  that  a  youngster 
at  that  age  can  know,  I  thought  of  my 


little  children  and  then  of  a  book  pub- 
lished recently,  written  by  two  of  the 
most  accepted,  and  I  think  effective, 
child  psychologists  of  the  day,  comment- 
ing on  the  age  "eight"  in  the  lives  of  the 
young. 

"Eight  seems  to  be  an  age  when  much 
that  was  not  comprehended  before  is 
often  easily  understood.  At  that  age  it 
is  almost  as  though  a  new  dimension 
has  been  added  to  the  child's  under- 
standing." 

It  is  remarkable  that  qualified  and 
earnest  seekers  after  truth  should  dis- 
cover that  at  age  eight  a  new  dimen- 
sion enters  into  the  life  of  the  child. 
The  Lord  assured  us  of  this  when  he 
talked  of  the  age  of  accountability  long 
ago. 

Of  one  thing  implicit  in  both  Presi- 
dent Smith's  and  Brother  Dyer's  re- 
marks, I  would  speak  for  just  a  few 
moments. 

A  thoughtful  friend  phoned  this 
morning  to  tell  me  of  a  book  he  had  just 
received — I  had  not  seen  a  copy  nor  is 
it  available  in  our  bookstores  yet — a  book 
called,  7  Found  God  in  Soviet  Russia, 
in  which  a  man  tells  of  his  own  experi- 
ences as  a  prisoner  in  a  concentration 
camp  in  Siberia. 

He  talks  of  the  religious  faith  that 
permitted  people  to  endure  and  survive. 


ELDER  MARION  D.  HANKS 


25 


He  mentions  in  at  least  four  different 
places,  and  this  would  perhaps  be  a 
satisfying  if  sorrowful  and  surprising 
thing  for  us  to  know,  that  in  a  concen- 
tration camp  in  Siberia  there  is  a  little 
band  of  members  of  the  Church  of  Jesus 
Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints,  meeting 
faithfully  and  loyally,  unwilling  to  deny 
or  let  rest  or  become  indifferent  to  their 
responsibilities  even  though  to  be  a 
member  of  the  Church  makes  them 
liable  to  life  imprisonment  according 
to  the  book. 

The  book  notes  that  these  Mormons 
insisted  on  coming  together  in  the  name 
of  the  Lord — that  when  they  had  a  few 
minutes  they  met  to  worship  God  in 
their  own  way. 

When  I  think  how  the  Lord  must  love 
and  look  with  compassion  upon  such 
individuals,  when  out  of  my  own  experi- 
ence as  a  parent  I  can  see  how  much  I 
love  my  little  ones,  I  can  understand 
(at  least  within  my  limitations)  what 
the  Lord  meant  when  he  talked  about 
the  worth  of  souls  in  his  sight.  And 
I  believe  I  may  understand  it  more  im- 
pressively and  movingly  today  than  I 
have  ever  understood  it  before. 

May  I  read  you  some  words  with 
which  all  are  familiar,  and  read  them  in 
context  of  what  has  been  said? 

"Remember  the  worth  of  souls  is  great 
in  the  sight  of  God; 

"For  behold,  the  Lord  your  Redeemer 
suffered  death  in  the  flesh;  wherefore  he 
suffered  the  pain  of  all  men,  that  all 
men  might  repent  and  come  unto  him." 
(D&C  18:10-11.) 

There  follows  the  great  statement  of 
the  joy  of  the  Lord  in  the  soul  that  re- 
penteth,  and  this: 

"And  if  it  so  be  that  you  should  labor 
all  your  days  in  crying  repentance  unto 
this  people,  and  bring,  save  it  be  one 
soul  unto  me,  how  great  shall  be  your 
joy  with  him  in  the  kingdom  of  my 
Father!" 

And  then  the  marvelous  statement 
that  ".  .  .  if  your  joy  will  be  great  with 
one  soul  .  .  .  how  great  will  be  your 
joy  if  you  should  bring  many  souls  unto 
me!"  (Idem,  15-16.) 

I  have  in  mind  to  express  my  testi- 
mony about  the  importance  of  the  one, 
to  add  my  humble  witness  to  the  charge 
that  has  been  given  every  teacher  and 
parent,  every  youth-influencing,  every 
adult-influencing  Latter-day  Saint,  to 


be  concerned  about  the  one  individual 
child  of  God. 

I  heard  a  statement  as  I  drove  toward 
Brigham  Young  University  the  other 
morning  from  the  Talmud,  or  so  it  was 
quoted:  "To  save  one  life  is  like  saving 
a  whole  nation."  And  I  began  to  think 
of  other  statements,  including  the  one 
from  the  eighteenth  section  of  the  Doc- 
trine and  Covenants,  to  which  we  have 
alluded.  I  thought  of  the  statement  of 
Oliver  Wendell  Holmes,  who  said, 
"Every  individual  is  an  omnibus."  Do 
you  see  the  significance  and  implication 
of  this? 

As  we  have  the  marvelous  blessing  of 
setting  missionaries  apart,  I  can  seldom 
refrain  from  thinking  of  them  (and  oc- 
casionally say  it)  that  in  each  of  them, 
as  in  each  of  us,  is  wrapped  up  a  heritage 
and  a  promise,  for  each  is  a  distillation 
of  much  that  has  gone  before,  and  be- 
yond all  that  is  represented  in  the  indi- 
vidual now  and  of  the  past,  there  is  also 
the  future,  because  in  each  of  us  are  the 
seeds  of  the  future;  in  each  of  us  there 
is,  in  fact,  the  capacity  and  possibility  of 
becoming  many. 

Could  I  tell  you  one  story  which  bears 
repetition — and  I  have  had  the  blessing 
of  repeating  it  in  some  of  the  stakes  of 
the  Church.  It  is  the  most  significant 
single  experience  I  have  ever  had,  per- 
sonally, about  the  importance  of  one.  It 
happened  long  enough  ago  that  I  think 
the  individual  involved  would  not  be 
conscious  of  our  noting  him,  though  I 
see  no  harm  if  he  is. 

A  man  walked  into  these  grounds  and 
into  an  office  in  the  Bureau  of  Informa- 
tion one  day  long  ago.  He  interrupted  a 
conversation  which  was  private  and 
serious,  and  did  it  without  apology.  He 
was  quite  an  elderly  man;  he  was  not 
what  you  would  call  an  attractive  human 
being.  He  was  unkempt,  unshaven;  he 
reeked  of  alcohol  and  tobacco. 

He  walked  over  to  the  desk  where  I 
sat,  pointed  his  hand  in  the  direction  of 
the  temple,  and  said,  "How  do  you  get 
in  there?"  I  assumed  that  he  was  a 
tourist,  one  of  the  infrequent  but  occa- 
sional few  who  do  not  understand  the 
purpose  and  the  reason  of  temple-going 
and  who  have  become  affronted  because 
they  are  not  taken  into  the  temple,  and 
perhaps  had  come  to  complain. 

I  told  him  as  best  I  could,  or  began 
to,  the  story  of  the  temple,  but  had  pro- 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


26 

Friday,  October  9 

ceeded  only  a  little  distance  when  he 
interrupted.  He  waved  me  away  and 
said,  "Oh,  you  don't  have  to  tell  me 
all  that,  I  know  that.  I  am  a  Mormon." 

"Well,"  I  said,  "if  you  are  a  member 
of  the  Church  and  you  know  all  of 
this,  what  is  it  you  want  from  me?"  He 
said,  "Frankly,  nothing.  There  isn't 
anything  you  have  to  give  me.  I  am 
here  because  my  wife  insisted  on  my 
coming  in,  but  I  have  fulfilled  my  er- 
rand," and  out  he  went. 

I  tried  to  pick  up  the  threads  of  the 
conversation  and  finish  it,  and  later,  as 
I  sat  thinking  about  him  and  his  story, 
I  looked  out  the  window  and  saw  him 
walking  by  the  Joseph  and  Hyrum 
[Smith]  monuments  with  a  younger 
woman.  I  went  out  to  talk  with  them. 
She  identified  herself  as  his  wife.  He 
had  been  married  three  times;  each 
previous  wife  had  died  after  bearing  a 
large  family. 

There  are  two  questions  I  asked  him, 
which  I  think  each  person  here  would 
do  well  to  hear  answered  as  he  an- 
swered them.  I  asked,  in  effect,  how 
he  had  come  to  his  feeling  of  antagonism 
and  indifference.  He  told  me  that  at 
age  nineteen  he  had  been  ejected  from 
a  chapel  by  a  bishop's  counselor  who 
had  been  summoned  because  of  the 
boy's  trouble-making  in  class.  One 
thing  that  had  been  said,  this  man  re- 
membered for  nearly  sixty  years.  As 
he  was  thrown  out,  someone  objected. 
The  answer  that  came  from  the  coun- 
selor who  had  the  task  in  hand  was, 
"Ah,  let  him  go,  he  is  just  one  kid!" 

He  went,  and  he  never  came  back, 
nor  was  there  ever  any  visiting,  never 
any  outpouring  or  increase  of  the  love 
that  should  follow  reproof,  according 
to  the  Lord.  He  moved  to  another  area 
of  the  land,  married,  had  a  family;  his 
wife  passed  away  and  he  married  again, 
his  second  wife  died  after  bearing  a  fam- 
ily also.  He  had  come  to  Salt  Lake 
City  at  the  insistence  of  his  third  wife, 
who,  having  been  taught  by  the  mission- 
aries and  converted  to  the  principles  of 
the  gospel,  had  brought  him  here  hoping 
that  somehow  he  might  be  touched — he, 
the  member. 

This,  also,  I  would  like  to  report:  I 
asked  him  how  many  living  descendants 
he  had.  He  counted  them  and  an- 
swered, "Fifty-four."  I  asked  him  then, 


First  Day 

how  many  of  them  are  members  of  the 
Church,  and  I  expect  you  know  the 
answer,  though  perhaps  not  his  inter- 
esting expression.  He  said,  "Huh,  ain't 
any  of  them  members  of  the  Church. 
They're  a  pretty  hard  lot." 

This  last  question:  who  was  it  the 
bishop's  counselor  propelled  out  the  door 
that  morning?  Just  one  boy?  Just  one? 
This  one  has  in  his  own  lifetime  be- 
come, in  effect,  a  multitude,  and  the 
current  has  but  begun  to  run,  and  every- 
one of  them  denied,  according  to  his 
own  witness,  the  love  of  the  gospel  and 
the  brotherhood  of  the  Saints,  the 
warmth  and  strength  and  direction  of 
the  programs  of  the  Church. 

Oh,  I  can  understand  a  little  more, 
why  the  Lord  said  that  one  soul  was 
precious  to  him. 

I  close  with  a  statement  Horace  Mann 
made.  This  is  well-known  also,  but 
worth  the  repetition.  To  a  man  who 
questioned  Horace  Mann's  statement  at 
the  dedication  of  a  boy's  home  or  school, 
that  if  all  the  work  and  energy  and  ef- 
fort and  money  put  into  this  endeavor 
had  been  to  save  just  one  boy,  it  would 
have  been  worth  it,  and  had  said  to 
Horace  Mann,  "You  became  too  ora- 
torical, didn't  you?  You  didn't  really 
mean  that,  did  you" — Horace  Mann  an- 
swered, "Oh,  yes,  I  meant  it.  It  would 
have  all  been  worth  it,  if  the  one  were 
my  son." 

Every  son  of  God  is  important  in  his 
eyes.  Every  unbaptized  child,  unor- 
dained  boy,  young  man  who  is  not  in 
the  right  stage  of  his  priesthood  pro- 
gression, every  boy  and  girl  not  attending 
seminary  when  they  can  and  should, 
every  boy  and  girl  not  being  married  in 
the  temple  when  they  could — these  are 
vitally  important  in  the  eyes  of  God  and 
should  be,  in  our  eyes. 

God  bless  us  to  understand  the  infinite 
importance  of  the  one,  in  God's  eyes, 
and  to  do  all  that  we  can  to  fulfil  his 
purposes  for  them,  I  pray  in  the  name 
of  Jesus  Christ.  Amen. 

President  David  O.  McKay: 

He  to  whom  we  have  just  listened  is 
Elder  Marion  D.  Hanks  of  the  First 
Council  of  Seventy.  Elder  John  Long- 
den,  Assistant  to  the  Twelve,  will  now 
speak  to  us. 


27 


ELDER  JOHN  LONGDEN 

Assistant  to  the  Council  of  the  Twelve  Apostles 


My  testimony  has  been  strengthened 
and  my  faith  increased  in  the  glorious 
truths  of  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  to 
which  we  have  listened  today.  It  does 
answer  the  questions:  why  these  general 
conferences,  why  these  quarterly  con- 
ferences, why  these  conferences  of  the 
auxiliary  organizations — "For  the  per- 
fecting of  the  saints,  for  the  work  of  the 
ministry,  for  the  edifying  of  the  body  of 
Christ,"  (Eph.  4:12)  until  we  all  come 
to  a  knowledge  of  the  truth. 

I  have  reminisced  as  Brother  Hanks 
has  been  speaking.  I  am  sure  he  will 
pardon  me  if  I  make  reference  to  him 
and  his  marvelous  family.  It  was  my 
privilege  to  live  in  the  Nineteenth  Ward 
in  the  Salt  Lake  Stake.  On  October  12, 
1921, 1  left  for  my  mission  to  the  Central 
States.  The  day  after,  there  came  into 
the  home  of  Brother  and  Sister  Hanks, 
not  a  small  boy — he  was  rather  large, 
I  understand — I  was  not  there,  but  I 
have  heard — and  he  was  named  Marion. 
Well,  you  have  seen  his  works;  you  have 
felt  his  spirit.  There  are  others  in  this 
family  just  as  good  and  just  as  devoted 
to  building  up  the  kingdom  of  God. 

Theirs  is  an  example  of  a  good  Latter- 
day  Saint  home,  wherein  are  taught  the 
truths  of  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ; 
wherein  they  gather  in  humble  prayer 
and  thanksgiving  for  the  blessings 
which  have  come  into  their  lives; 
wherein  they  are  taught  the  true  joys  of 
service  to  God  and  our  fellow  men.  My, 
what  a  contrast  to  the  story  he  has  just 
related  to  us. 

There  is  another  anniversary  this 
week — if  I  may  be  pardoned  for  making 
reference  to  it — just  fifty  years  ago  on  the 
7th  of  October  my  father  and  I  arrived 
in  Salt  Lake  City — a  boy  of  ten,  coming 
to  a  new  world  with  one  purpose  in 
mind,  to  be  close  to  the  center  of  the 
Church  and  to  serve  the  Lord. 

I  am  grateful  for  that  father  who 
listened  to  the  missionaries  some  sixty- 
three  years  ago  in  England,  about  two 
years  before  I  was  born,  who  accepted 
these  truths  and  for  about  forty-five  years 
was  associated  with  the  Scout  program 
of  the  Church. 

I  shall  ever  be  grateful  for  my  mem- 
bership in  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ, 


and  to  the  young  people  today  may  I 
say  that  there  is  no  obsolescence  in  the 
teachings  of  the  gospel.  As  I  understand 
the  definition  of  obsolete  it  means  some- 
thing that  is  old-fashioned,  that  we  have 
outgrown,  something  that  is  ancient  or 
antiquated  and  maybe,  in  the  terms  of 
modern  language,  "old  stuff"  or  "for  the 
birds." 

The  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  is  just  as 
vital  and  essential  today  as  it  was  when 
it  was  instituted  in  our  pre-existent  es- 
tate. Jesus  Christ  is  the  Author  of  salva- 
tion. I  know  this  as  I  know  I  am  standing 
here  today.    I  have  that  witness. 

We  may  be  termed  peculiar,  but  that 
is  nothing  new.  Whenever  there  has 
been  a  dispensation  of  the  gospel  of 
Jesus  Christ  in  the  earth,  the  followers 
have  been  referred  to  as  "a  peculiar  peo- 
ple." Moses  so  declared.  Peter  and 
Paul  so  declared.  I  would  recall  the 
words  of  Peter: 

"But  ye  are  a  chosen  generation,  a 
royal  priesthood,  an  holy  nation,  a  pe- 
culiar people;  that  ye  should  shew  forth 
the  praises  of  him  who  hath  called  you 
out  of  darkness  into  his  marvellous 
light."  (I  Peter  2:9.) 

It  is  wonderful  to  bask  in  the  light 
of  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  which 
banishes  fear,  which  banishes  confusion 
and  frustrations,  and,  oh,  the  need  for 
remembering  these  things  today. 

So  I  pray  that  we  will  acknowledge 
the  hand  of  God  as  we  have  listened  to 
his  mouthpiece  and  prophet  in  his  key- 
note address  to  this  great  conference, 
admonishing  us  to  teach  the  word.  We 
make  no  apology  for  teaching  truth,  we 
need  make  no  compromise  with  the 
philosophies  and  teachings  of  men.  The 
only  time  we  are  on  dangerous  ground  is 
when  we  pull  away  from  the  teachings 
of  the  Master,  for  I  assure  you  the  Mas- 
ter does  not  pull  away  from  us.  As 
individuals  we  are  prone  to  pull  away 
from  him  because  of  things  we  do  and 
say  not  in  harmony  with  his  teachings. 

May  we  have  a  desire  reburnished  in 
our  minds  and  our  hearts  as  we  leave 
this  conference,  to  be  more  dedicated  in 
the  service  of  the  Master,  putting  our 
own  homes  in  order,  having  family 
prayer,  our  individual  prayer,  paying 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


28 

Friday,  October  9 

our  tithes  and  offerings,  keeping  the 
Word  of  Wisdom,  and  being  chaste  and 
benevolent.  As  I  speak  of  putting  our 
homes  in  order,  I  should  like  to  suggest 
that  we  take  note  of  what  comes  into 
the  hands  of  our  youth,  our  own  chil- 
dren. We  must  make  sure  they  are 
not  having  their  minds  poisoned  by  the 
garbage,  if  you  please,  that  is  on  many 
of  the  newsstands  and  available  through 
other  channels  throughout  the  nation. 

Time  will  not  permit  me  to  go  into 
this  subject  further,  but  I  call  to  mind  a 
headline  which  I  read  just  recently  as  I 
visited  one  of  the  stakes  in  the  East  and 
it  told  of  this  sad  story: 

As  the  story  was  told,  a  man,  an 
employee  of  the  city  of  New  York  for 
some  thirty  years,  a  respected  employee, 
married,  with  grown  children  who  were 
married,  had  working  with  him  a  young 
man  about  twenty-five,  also  married. 
Unknown  to  their  wives,  they  had  been 
in  the  dastardly  business  of  producing 
vile  film,  pornography,  and  were  arrested 
with  over  $500,000  worth  of  the  filthy 
stuff  in  their  possession  in  one  of  their 
garages.  I  mention  again,  they  were 
married  men  with  children  of  their  own, 
deliberately  poisoning  the  minds  of 
young  people,  taking  advantage  of  living 
in  a  land  where  our  forefathers  came  to 
worship  God  according  to  the  dictates  of 
their  own  conscience,  a  land  built  upon 
freedom  and  liberty. 

I  call  to  mind  a  statement  made  by  a 
minister  a  couple  of  weeks  ago  as  the 
Premier  from  Russia  visited  in  the 
United  States.  He  said  he  hoped  that 
Mr.  Khrushchev  would  come  to  his 
church  ".  .  .  to  see  how  we  worship." 

How  are  we  worshiping?  Are  we  the 
followers  of  Jesus  Christ  only  on  the 
Sabbath  day,  or  just  when  we  are  in 
priesthood  meeting,  or  is  it  that  worship 
which  reflects  good  and  his  peace  as 
we  go  forth  in  our  various  travels,  en- 
deavors, and  walks  of  life,  truly  being  an 
influence  every  day,  every  hour,  every 
minute  for  good  to  our  fellow  men? 

I  pray  that  we  as  parents  will  seek  to 
know  what  our  children  are  feeding 


First  Day 

upon,  and  see  that  they  feed  upon  the 
truths  found  in  the  Bible,  the  Book  of 
Mormon,  the  Doctrine  and  Covenants, 
the  Pearl  of  Great  Price,  the  four 
Standard  Works  of  the  Church.  Then 
they  will  not  suffer  from  malnourish- 
ment  of  the  Spirit,  and  we  will  be  fitting 
them  to  withstand  the  buffeting  of 
Satan. 

I  bear  you  my  witness  and  testimony 
that  God  lives,  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ, 
the  Divine  Son  of  our  Heavenly  Father, 
that  Joseph  Smith  was  and  is  a  Prophet 
of  God,  and  that  those  who  have  suc- 
ceeded him  as  Presidents  of  this  Church 
down  to  President  David  O.  McKay  to- 
day, have  been  and  are  mouthpieces 
and  prophets  of  our  Lord. 

I  bear  you  my  solemn  witness  that 
President  McKay  holds  the  keys  and 
authority,  the  keys  of  the  kingdom,  and 
that  the  mantle  of  authority  is  upon 
him.  I  am  so  thankful  for  that  wit- 
ness, and  I  pray  that  I  may  be  able  to 
continue  to  bear  this  testimony  as  the 
Lord  permits.  I  pray  his  peace  and 
blessing  upon  us  humbly,  in  the  name 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Amen. 

President  David  O.  McKay: 

Elder  John  Longden,  Assistant  to  the 
Twelve,  has  just  spoken  to  us. 

Sister  Florence  Jepperson  Madsen  will 
now  lead  the  Singing  Mothers  and  the 
Congregation  in  singing  "O  Say,  What 
Is  Truth?"  Elder  Milton  R.  Hunter  will 
speak  to  us  after  the  singing. 


The  congregation  and  the  Singing 
Mothers  joined  in  singing  the  hymn, 
"O  Say,  What  Is  Truth?" 

President  David  O.  McKay: 

Elder  Milton  R.  Hunter  of  the  First 
Council  of  Seventy  will  now  speak  to  us. 
He  will  be  followed  by  Elder  LeGrand 
Richards,  who  will  be  our  concluding 
speaker. 


29 


ELDER  MILTON  R.  HUNTER 

Of  the  First  Council  of  the  Seventy 


My  dear  brothers  and  sisters,  I  humbly 
ask  an  interest  in  your  faith  and  prayers 
that  the  Spirit  of  God  will  direct  what 
I  may  say. 

The  Book  of  Mormon  prophets  made 
numerous  predictions  regarding  the  In- 
dians, or  the  Lamanites,  promising  many 
great  blessings  that  would  come  to  them 
in  the  latter  days.  Some  of  the  prophe- 
cies regarding  the  Indians  have  been 
fulfilled;  others  are  being  fulfilled;  and 
eventually  all  of  the  predictions  of  the 
holy  prophets  will  come  to  pass. 

I  would  like  this  afternoon  to  tell  two 
marvelous  experiences  had  by  the  In- 
dians in  Guatemala,  Central  America. 
These  experiences  were  related  to  me 
while  I  was  visiting  that  country. 

I  toured  the  Central  American  Mis- 
sion in  January  1956,  in  the  company  of 
President  and  Sister  Edgar  Wagner.  We 
were  on  a  train  coming  from  Guate- 
mala City  to  Quirigua,  Guatemala. 
Riding  in  the  same  car  with  us  was  a 
very  lovely  Indian  woman,  a  Quiche 
Maya  from  Quezaltenango,  Guatemala. 
She  was  accompanied  by  her  husband. 
President  Wagner  introduced  them  to 
me,  stating  that  the  Indian  woman  was 
the  Relief  Society  president  in  Quezal- 
tenango. I  sat  in  the  adjacent  seat  and 
had  a  conversation  with  them.  The 
woman  told  me  the  following  story: 

"When  I  was  a  girl,"  she  said,  "a 
marvelous  thing  happened  in  my  home 
town.  One  day  two  strangers  came  to 
Quezaltenango.  They  were  tall  men — 
much  taller  than  the  Indian  men  of  our 
country — and  their  skin  was  white  in 
color.  They  were  handsome  men.  Their 
clothing  differed  greatly  from  that  worn 
by  the  Quiche  Mayas.  Nobody  had  any 
idea  as  to  who  they  were  or  whence  they 
came.  They  just  suddenly  arrived  in 
the  middle  of  the  city  and  began  to 
preach  to  the  people.  A  large  group  of 
Indians  soon  assembled  in  the  street 
to  listen  to  the  instructions  given  by 
these  strangers.  Many  of  the  things 
they  told  us  were  predictions  of  what 
would  occur  in  the  future. 

"The  thing  that  impressed  me  most," 
she  said,  "was  the  statements  they  made 
regarding  our  ancestors  once  having 
had  the  true  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ. 


They  had  lost  it  through  wickedness  and 
apostasy,  resulting  in  the  gospel  being 
taken  from  the  earth.  They  then  said 
that  God  had  caused  the  true  gospel  to 
be  restored  to  earth  again,  and  that  in 
the  near  future  that  gospel  would  be 
brought  to  our  people.  Those  two  mes- 
sengers said  that  we  would  be  able  to 
recognize  the  true  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ 
when  it  came,  and  the  sign  by  which 
we  would  know  it  would  be  that  young 
men,  traveling  two  by  two,  would  bring 
it  to  us." 

A  few  years  passed,  and  she  had 
grown  to  womanhood.  Finally  Mor- 
mon missionaries  came  to  Quezalte- 
nango. As  she  observed  them,  and 
listened  to  them  preach,  she  recalled 
the  things  that  were  predicted  by  the 
two  messengers  when  she  was  a  girl. 
She  recalled  that  the  bearers  of  the  true 
gospel  were  to  be  young  men,  traveling 
two  by  two,  and  these  Mormon  mission- 
aries completely  fitted  the  predictions. 
Thereupon  she  invited  them  to  her  home 
and  received  the  gospel  from  them. 

This  Indian  woman  bore  a  very  strong 
and  fervent  testimony  to  me  that  she 
knew  that  these  missionaries  had 
brought  her  the  true  gospel  of  Jesus 
Christ.  She  said: 

"I  know  that  God  sent  those  two 
strangers,  his  messengers,  to  Quezal- 
tenango to  prepare  the  hearts  and  the 
minds  of  the  Quiche  Mayas  in  this  part 
of  the  country  to  receive  the  gospel  of 
Jesus  Christ.  I  and  a  number  of  others 
of  our  people  who  saw  those  messengers 
and  listened  to  their  predictions  are  now 
Mormons." 

I  asked  her  to  give  me  the  names  of 
other  Lamanites  who  were  present  when 
the  two  messengers  visited  Quezal- 
tenango. This  she  did.  I  had  one  of 
the  missionaries,  the  supervising  elder, 
check  with  them  for  the  purpose  of 
verifying  her  story.  These  other  In- 
dians also  gave  similar  accounts  of  those 
two  tall,  white  strangers  visiting  Quezal- 
tenango some  years  ago. 

This  past  January  (1959)  I  was  again 
assigned  to  tour  the  Central  American 
Mission  in  company  with  President  and 
Sister  Wagner.  Sister  Hunter  accom- 
panied me  on  this  tour. 


30 

Friday,  October  9 

Shortly  after  we  arrived  in  Guate- 
mala City,  President  Wagner  told  us 
about  some  very  important  events  which 
had  occurred  in  the  life  of  a  certain 
Cakchiquel  Maya  man  named  Daniel 
Mich.  This  good  Lamanite  or  Indian 
had  joined  the  Church  not  long  before 
our  arrival  in  Guatemala.  After  be- 
coming a  member  of  the  Church  of 
Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints  and 
just  prior  to  our  arrival  in  the  Central 
American  Mission,  Brother  Mich  came 
to  Guatemala  City  and  attended  a 
Sacrament  meeting.  He  bore  his  testi- 
mony at  this  meeting  and  told  the  won- 
derful story  of  his  experiences  which  I 
shall  retell  to  you  today.  In  describing 
Daniel  Mich's  telling  of  his  experiences 
and  bearing  his  testimony,  President 
Wagner  said: 

"The  tears  rolled  down  Brother 
Mich's  cheeks.  There  was  not  a  dry 
eye  in  the  house.  The  Spirit  of  God 
was  there  in  great  abundance." 

The  following  is  Daniel  Mich's 
story.  He  lived  in  Patzicia,  Guatemala, 
a  small  town  not  far  from  Lake  Atitlan. 
A  few  years  ago  an  Indian  rebellion 
against  the  government  officials,  who 
were  primarily  of  Spanish  blood,  took 
place  in  Patzicia.  The  government  offi- 
cials decided  to  put  to  death  all  the 
Indians  who  had  participated  in  this 
rebellion  and  especially  those  who  in- 
stigated it. 

Daniel  Mich  had  taken  no  part  in 
the  rebellion;  however,  the  government 
officials  thought  he  was  guilty.  The 
Spirit  of  God  whispered  to  him  and 
told  him  and  his  brother  to  flee  to  the 
mountains  and  hide  in  a  certain  place. 
If  they  did  not,  they  would  be  killed. 
They  did  as  the  Spirit  instructed.  As 
they  arrived  at  the  hiding  place  sug- 
gested by  the  Spirit,  they  lay  on  a  ledge 
and  looked  over  the  precipice.  Below 
them  they  could  see  the  government 
officials  searching  for  them  along  the 
mountainside. 

A  number  of  Indians  were  captured 
at  this  time  and  put  to  death.  Daniel 
Mich  and  his  brother  stayed  in  seclusion 
for  two  years,  but  finally  they  were  also 
captured.  Conditions  had  changed 
during  the  two  years  to  the  extent  that 
the  Mich  brothers  were  not  killed  but 
were  thrown  into  prison.  For  four  long 
years  they  lay  in  prison,  living  under 
the  most  terrible   conditions.  Their 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


First  Day 

clothing  wore  out.  They  had  a  scant 
amount  of  bedding.  It  was  very  cold, 
and  the  jail  was  unheated.  The  care- 
takers of  the  prison  gave  them  very 
little  food;  in  fact,  they  practically 
starved  to  death.  And  to  make  matters 
much  worse,  Daniel  Mich  received  word 
from  his  wife  that  she  and  the  children 
were  practically  starved  to  death.  Dur- 
ing the  six  years'  time  that  he  was  in 
hiding  and  in  prison,  they  had  not  been 
able  to  make  a  livelihood. 

In  desperation,  and,  of  course,  in  great 
grief,  Daniel  Mich  kneeled  down  and 
prayed  to  God,  pleading  that  the  Eter- 
nal Father  would  be  merciful  unto  him 
and  let  him  die.  He  also  prayed  that 
the  Lord  would  extend  his  mercy  unto 
his  wife  and  children,  that  they  all 
might  soon  die.  He  pleaded  with  the 
Lord  to  release  him  and  his  family 
members  from  the  misery  and  suffering 
that  they  were  enduring. 

But  God  did  not  let  them  die.  In- 
stead, Daniel  Mich  had  a  vision,  or  a 
dream,  or  whatever  it  might  be  called. 
He  was  going  up  the  side  of  a  steep 
mountain  on  a  definitely  defined  trail. 
He  came  to  a  place  where  a  side  trail 
forked  off  the  main  trail.  A  man  stood 
on  the  side  trail  and  said,  "Follow  me." 

Daniel  Mich  replied,  "No,  I  cannot 
follow  you.  I  must  follow  this  trail 
straight  ahead." 

He  went  some  distance  farther,  and 
another  man  stood  on  another  side  trail, 
He  also  said,  "Follow  me." 

And  again  Daniel  Mich  replied,  "No, 
I  cannot  follow  you.  I  must  go  straight 
ahead."  This  experience  repeated  itself 
three  or  four  times. 

Daniel  Mich  explained,  "Finally  I 
came  to  the  summit,  and  there  standing 
in  front  of  me  was  a  tall,  handsome 
man,  with  beautiful  white  hair.  He 
had  a  very  kindly  and  beautiful  smile. 
This  man  said  to  me,  'Daniel,  follow 
me.'  I  replied,  'I  will  follow  you,'  be- 
cause as  I  made  that  remark,  the  Spirit 
of  God  whispered  to  me  and  said,  'That 
man  has  the  truth.'  " 

Shortly  after  having  this  dream  or 
vision,  Daniel  Mich  and  his  brother 
were  released  from  jail.  They  returned 
to  their  home  town.  Soon  thereafter, 
and  possibly  about  a  year  before  I  visited 
Guatemala,  missionaries  came  to  Pat- 
zicia, Brother  Mich's  home  town.  They 


ELDER  MILTON  R.  HUNTER 


31 


had  not  been  working  there  long  until 
one  day  the  mayor  sent  for  them  to 
come  to  his  office.  When  the  mission- 
aries arrived,  they  saw  a  large  crowd 
of  Indians,  perhaps  200  or  more,  col- 
lected in  front  of  the  mayor's  office.  As 
the  missionaries  approached,  according 
to  the  description  given  by  the  mission- 
aries, "The  crowd  of  Indians  opened  as 
the  Red  Sea  opened  for  the  Israelites  to 
go  through.  We  walked  between  two 
columns  of  Indians  and  on  into  the 
mayor's  office." 

The  elders  said  to  the  mayor,  "You 
sent  for  us?" 

"Yes,  I  did,"  was  the  reply. 

"What  do  you  want?"  they  asked. 

The  mayor  answered,  "I  have  here  in 
front  of  me  a  petition  signed  by  two 
hundred  citizens  of  our  community  in 
which  they  demand  that  you  young  men 
leave  town  immediately  and  that  you 
refrain  from  teaching  your  religion  any 
more  in  our  community.  Will  you  go?" 

"No,  we  will  not  go,"  the  missionaries 
replied.  "We  will  not  leave  this  town 
until  our  mission  president  tells  us  to 
leave." 

The  elders  sat  silently  in  the  mayor's 
office  for  several  minutes,  and  then  one 
of  them  asked,  "What  do  you  intend 
to  do?" 

The  mayor  replied,  "I  do  not  know." 

Thereupon  one  of  the  missionaries 
suggested  that  he  telephone  the  governor, 
and  perhaps  the  governor  could  instruct 
him.  The  mayor  immediately  picked  up 
the  telephone,  called  the  governor,  and 
explained  the  situation. 

The  governor  emphatically  instructed, 
"Let  those  Mormon  missionaries  alone. 
They  have  a  right  to  teach  their  re- 
ligion in  your  town  or  in  any  other  town 
or  city  in  Guatemala,  because  we  have 
religious  freedom  in  our  country." 

After  this  favorable  solution  of  the 
problem,  the  missionaries  came  out  of 
the  mayor's  office.  Once  again  they 
described  the  crowd,  stating  that  it 
opened  as  the  Red  Sea  opened  for  the 
Israelites.  The  elders  passed  between 
those  two  long  lines  of  Indians.  As  they 
arrived  at  the  edge  of  the  crowd,  two 
men  approached  them  and  said,  "Will 
you  come  to  our  homes  and  talk  to 
us?"  One  of  the  men  was  Daniel  Mich. 

The  missionaries  were  happy  to  ac- 
cept the  invitation.  They  went  to 
Daniel  Mich's  home  and  taught  him 


the  gospel.  He  received  all  they  taught 
with  much  faith  and  sincerity.  They 
taught  him  only  three  or  four  lessons 
when  a  very  important  event  occurred. 
One  day  while  in  the  midst  of  one  of 
the  lessons,  one  of  the  missionaries 
opened  his  book,  and  Daniel  Mich  saw  a 
photograph  of  a  tall,  handsome  man, 
with  beautiful  white  hair. 

Brother  Mich  immediately  and  ex- 
citedly exclaimed,  "This  is  the  man  I  It 
is  he  whom  I  saw!" 

Of  course  the  missionaries  wondered 
what  he  was  talking  about,  and  so  they 
questioned  him.  In  response  he  told 
them  the  wonderful  story  which  I  have 
just  told  you  good  people  today. 

Then  Daniel  Mich  asked,  "Who  is 
this  man  whose  photograph  you  have  in 
your  book?" 

"His  name  is  David  O.  McKay,"  the 
missionaries  replied.  "He  is  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of 
Latter-day  Saints.  He  is  God's  holy 
prophet,  seer,  and  revelator  upon  the 
earth  at  the  present  time.  He  is  the 
man  who  holds  the  keys  of  the  kingdom 
of  God  and  stands  as  Christ's  repre- 
sentative in  the  true  Church  and  the 
leader  in  spreading  the  true  gospel  of 
Jesus  Christ." 

In  deep  sincerity  Daniel  Mich  re- 
plied, "I  know  that  all  of  the  things 
you  have  told  me  are  true.  I  know  that 
you  missionaries  have  the  true  gospel 
of  Jesus  Christ."  Then  he  asked,  "Do 
you  know  why  I  invited  you  to  come  to 
my  home  that  day  as  you  came  out  of 
the  mayor's  office?" 

"Of  course  we  do  not  know  but  would 
certainly  like  to  know,"  they  replied. 

Then  Daniel  Mich  explained,  "At 
the  time  that  the  tall,  handsome  man, 
with  beautiful  white  hair — whom  you 
have  told  me  was  President  David  O. 
McKay — said  to  me,  'Daniel,  follow 
me,'  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  whispered 
to  me  and  said,  'This  man  has  the 
truth.'  The  Spirit  also  said,  'Two  young 
men  will  bring  you  the  truth';  and  when 
you  came  into  our  town  recently  and 
began  to  teach  your  religion,  I  became 
curious.  I  had  been  watching  you  and 
attempting  to  find  out  all  about  you 
that  I  could.  When  the  citizens  of 
Patzicia  signed  the  petition  to  have  you 
thrown  out  of  town  and  when  you 
called  to  see  the  mayor,  I  joined  the 
crowd  in  front  of  the  mayor's  office  to 


32 

Friday,  October  9 

see  what  would  take  place.  And  now," 
he  said,  "all  the  things  that  I  believed 
have  been  verified.  I  know  that  David 
O.  McKay  is  a  prophet  of  God.  I  also 
know  that  you  have  the  true  religion  of 
Jesus  Christ." 

These  two  important  stories  demon- 
strate the  fact  that  the  Lord  is  touching 
the  hearts  of  the  Lamanites,  and  they 
are  receiving  the  gospel.  He  is  opening 
the  way  for  the  fulfilment  of  the  prom- 
ises made  to  the  Lamanites  or  Indians 
by  the  Book  of  Mormon  prophets. 

The  last  meeting  of  our  mission  tour 
was  held  at  Chimaltenango,  Guatemala, 
in  the  evening  of  January  30,  1959. 
Missionary  work  was  opened  in  this 
district  only  two  years  earlier.  There 
are  four  towns  in  the  district,  having  a 
Church  membership  of  141  people. 

There  were  425  people  in  attendance 
at  the  conference,  practically  all  being 
Indians.  Based  on  the  Church  popula- 
tion in  the  district,  we  had  300  percent 
attendance.  Practically  every  Indian 
mother  was  carrying  a  baby  wrapped  in 
a  shawl  and  tied  to  her  body.  Most 
of  the  people  were  barefoot;  they  were 
humble,  God-fearing,  faithful  people, 
poor  in  economic  goods,  but  rich  in 
spirituality  and  their  love  for  the  Lord. 

Brother  Daniel  Mich  from  Patzicia 
was  present.  We  called  on  this  humble 
Indian  to  talk.  When  I  listened  to  his 
testimony  for  thirty  to  forty  minutes  and 
felt  the  spiritual  influence  of  God  which 
emanated  from  him,  I  could  understand 
why  the  Lord  loved  this  humble  intelli- 
gent, and  spiritual-minded  Lamanite 
enough  to  give  him  the  marvelous  expe- 
riences of  which  I  have  told  you.  I 
shall  always  remember  our  conference 
at  Chimaltenango  and  the  beautiful 
testimony  given  by  Brother  Daniel  Mich 
from  Patzicia,  one  of  the  towns  in  the 
Chimaltenango  district.  I  am  convinced 
that  God  loves  the  Lamanite  people. 

Now,  brothers  and  sisters,  I  want  to 
bear  my  testimony.    I  know  that  God 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


First  Day 

lives  as  I  know  that  I  am  alive.  I 
know  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ,  the  Savior 
of  the  world.  I  know  that  Joseph  Smith 
is  one  of  the  greatest  prophets  that  has 
been  upon  the  earth.  I  bear  witness  that 
the  true  gospel  of  our  Master  was  re- 
stored upon  the  earth  through  him. 
Also,  I  testify  that  each  of  the  presidents 
of  the  Church  from  Joseph's  time  to  the 
present  has  held  the  keys  of  the  king- 
dom. Each  one,  up  to  and  including 
President  David  O.  McKay,  was  divinely 
selected  to  be  the  President  of  the 
Church,  each  being  a  prophet,  a  seer, 
and  a  revelator. 

I  feel  as  Daniel  Mich  explained,  I 
am  willing  to  follow  President  David  O. 
McKay  at  all  times  and  to  do  anything 
that  he  asks  me  to  do.  I  pray  to  God 
that  I  will  have  the  strength,  the  faith, 
and  the  understanding  that  I  might 
follow  all  the  things  that  he  tells  me  to 
do,  because  I  know  that  he  will  not 
tell  me  to  do  anything  that  will  be  to 
my  detriment  or  to  the  detriment  of  the 
people  with  whom  I  work. 

I  also  humbly  plead  with  all  Latter- 
day  Saints  that  we  will  have  the  same 
spirit  and  testimony  that  this  humble 
Indian  had.  May  all  of  us  follow  at  all 
times  the  leadership  of  President  David 
O.  McKay  and  do  all  that  he  asks  us 
to  do.  We  accept  him  as  God's  holy 
prophet.  If  we  will  follow  his  leader- 
ship in  all  things,  we  will  work  out  our 
eternal  exaltation.  May  this  be  our 
happy  lot,  and  may  our  Eternal  Father 
bless  us  with  sufficient  faith  and  strength 
of  character  to  keep  all  of  his  command- 
ments always,  I  humbly  pray,  in  Jesus' 
name.  Amen. 

President  David  O.  McKay: 

Elder  Milton  R.  Hunter  of  the  First 
Council  of  Seventy  has  just  spoken  to 
us.  We  will  now  hear  from  Elder 
LeGrand  Richards  of  the  Council  of 
the  Twelve. 


ELDER  LEGRAND  RICHARDS 

Of  the  Council  of  the  Twelve  Apostles 


I  rejoice  with  you,  my  brothers  and 
sisters,  in  the  privilege  of  attending  this 
wonderful  conference  and  listening  to 
the  testimonies  of  the  servants  of  the 
Lord,  including  the  great  witness  borne 


to  us  this  morning  by  President  McKay. 
I  thank  the  Lord  for  my  testimony  that 
I  know  this  work  is  true,  and  I  know  the 
power  of  God  is  in  it;  that  this  Church 
is  built  upon  the  foundation  of  apostles 


ELDER  LEGRAND  RICHARDS 


33 


and  prophets,  and  that  Christ  our  Lord 
is  truly  the  head  of  his  Church  today, 
as  he  has  always  been. 

I  have  just  had  the  privilege,  with  my 
wife,  by  appointment  of  President 
McKay,  of  touring  five  of  the  missions 
of  Europe — the  Danish,  the  Swedish, 
the  Norwegian,  the  Finnish,  and  the 
Netherlands  Missions — and  Sister  Rich- 
ards and  I  appreciate  that  opportunity 
very,  very  much.  I  love  missionary 
work.  I  love  the  spirit  of  missionary 
work.  I  know  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is 
in  the  missionary  work. 

When  Jesus  was  resurrected  and  sent 
his  disciples  into  all  the  world  to  preach 
the  gospel  to  every  creature,  he  said, 
"And,  lo,  I  am  with  you  alway,  even 
unto  the  end  of  the  world,"  (Matthew 
28:20),  indicating  that  when  his  king- 
dom should  be  set  up  in  the  latter  days 
that  he  would  be  with  his  servants  until 
the  end  of  the  world.  And  I  know  that 
the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is  in  this  great 
missionary  movement. 

It  was  our  privilege  to  visit  and  hear 
the  testimonies  of  over  five  hundred  mis- 
sionaries, and  each  one  I  interviewed 
personally;  and  if  you  parents  could 
have  heard  the  testimonies  of  those  mis- 
sionaries, you  would  have  been  proud, 
and  you  would  have  felt  compensated 
for  the  sacrifices  you  are  making  to  keep 
them  in  the  mission  field.  Many  of 
them  bore  testimony  of  their  gratitude 
to  their  parents  for  the  privilege  of 
being  in  the  mission  field.  Some  told  of 
the  financial  struggles  their  parents  had 
had.  One  boy  said  that  his  father  was 
out  of  work  when  he  was  called  to  go, 
but  he  would  not  stand  in  the  way  of 
that  son  of  his  being  an  ambassador  of 
eternal  truth,  and  many  of  them  testi- 
fied that  their  parents  had  prospered 
financially  as  never  before  while  their 
sons  were  in  the  mission  field. 

Another  thing  that  thrilled  me  in 
their  testimonies:  Many  of  them  testi- 
fied that  their  parents  and  the  members 
of  their  families  had  become  more  in- 
terested and  active  in  the  Church  while 
their  sons  were  in  the  mission  field,  so 
that  this  great  missionary  program  in  a 
way  is  like  a  two-edged  sword.  It  does 
a  marvelous  work  in  the  mission  field, 
and  it  does  a  marvelous  work  here  at 
home. 

One  missionary  whom  I  interviewed 
in  Denmark  said,  "I  almost  worship 


President  Petersen,  my  mission  presi- 
dent. It  was  he  who  brought  the  gospel 
to  my  father  in  this  land,  and  there  are 
now  fifty-seven  of  us  in  the  Church  by 
virtue  of  that  one  conversion." 

Another  young  man  who  was  a  coun- 
selor in  the  mission  presidency  in  that 
mission  was  the  seventh  son  of  a  con- 
vert from  that  mission  to  go  back  into 
the  mission  field — a  wonderful  young 
man — and  he  said,  "Brother  Richards, 
couldn't  I  stay  another  six  months?" 
I  said,  "No,  you  had  better  go  home. 
You  have  your  military  work  to  get 
back  of  you  and  your  schooling,  and 
then  you  ought  to  get  married,  and 
then  you  can  raise  your  boys  as  your 
father  did  and  send  them  back  on  mis- 
sions, and  they  will  do  the  rest  of  your 
missionary  work  for  you." 

It  was  a  wonderful  thing  to  be  with 
those  missionaries  and  feel  their  spirit, 
and  I  thank  the  Lord  for  the  experiences 
that  have  been  mine.  They  say  the 
proof  of  the  pudding  is  in  the  eating 
of  it,  and  I  nave  had  the  privilege  of 
filling  four  missions  and  presiding  over 
two,  and  touring  many  of  the  missions, 
and  I  would  not  want  to  raise  a  boy 
in  this  day  and  generation  and  not  have 
him  go  on  a  mission  for  his  good  and, 
because  I  think  we  owe  so  much  to  the 
world,  to  share  with  them  the  wonderful 
truths  of  the  gospel. 

If  you  parents  could  have  seen  the 
glow  in  their  faces  when  the  mission- 
aries would  bring  their  investigators  up 
to  shake  our  hands,  you  would  not  figure 
that  there  was  anything  in  this  world 
that  could  compensate  and  take  the 
place  of  the  experiences  that  were  theirs. 

The  missionaries  fast  for  their  investi- 
gators. Two  of  the  missionaries  fasted 
all  day  that  their  investigator  would  not 
disappoint  them  when  they  had  a  bap- 
tismal service  arranged  for  her  that 
night  up  in  Trondheim,  in  the  northern 
part  of  Norway.  We  went  out  to  the 
bank  of  a  fjord  after  ten  o'clock  at  night, 
the  sun  still  shining,  and  what  a  marvel- 
ous sight  to  see  the  missionaries  and 
the  sister  dressed  in  white!  The  mission- 
ary led  her  out  into  the  waters  of 
baptism,  and  when  she  came  back,  my 
wife  said,  through  the  interpreter,  "Was 
it  cold?"  She  said,  "It's  deilig."  That 
means,  it's  beautiful.  I  do  not  know 
whether  any  of  you  Scandinavians  will 
recognize  that  or  not,  but  that  was  her 


34 

Friday,  October  9 

way  of  saying  it  was  wonderful. 

It  was  wonderful.  It  was  a  wonderful 
thing  to  witness  that  baptism.  We  stood 
there  watching  it,  and  many  of  the 
tourists  or  the  vacationers  were  watching 
it  and  a  little  sailboat  that  sailed  up 
the  fjord  because  this  was  out  in  the 
open.  We  have  no  baptismal  fonts 
there  yet.  However,  they  are  building 
a  beautiful  new  chapel  and  had  the 
foundation  in  when  we  were  there.  As 
I  looked  and  watched  that  beautiful 
sight,  I  thought  of  the  account  in  the 
Bible  where  John  led  the  Redeemer  of 
the  world  down  into  the  waters  of 
baptism.  He  did  not  take  a  little  water 
and  sprinkle  upon  the  head  of  the 
Savior.  He  led  him  down  into  the  water, 
and  we  read  that  when  he  was  baptized 
they  came  up  out  of  the  water,  and  I 
wondered  how  Christians  could  satisfy 
themselves  having  a  little  water 
sprinkled  upon  their  heads  instead  of 
really  being  baptized  as  the  Redeemer 
of  the  world  was  baptized,  especially 
when  they  read  so  many  predictions  of 
the  prophets  and  apostles  that  the  day 
would  come  when  men  would  "trans- 
gress the  laws  and  change  the  ordi- 
nances." 

I  visited  with  quite  a  number  of 
people  who  had  been  to  the  temple. 
They  had  just  had  a  tour  from  each 
of  those  Scandinavian  missions  and 
from  up  in  Finland  to  the  temple. 
About  one  hundred  went  in  each  group. 
And  I  want  to  pay  tribute  here  to  you 
members  of  these  foreign-speaking 
groups.  I  have  something  to  do  with 
your  work.  But  you  have  sent  money 
to  these  mission  presidents  to  help  some 
of  these  underprivileged  members  to  go 
to  the  temple.  You  should  see  the  joy 
that  it  brings  into  their  lives!  Those 
temples  have  literally  changed  the  atti- 
tude of  the  Saints  in  many  respects. 

I  was  visiting  with  one  young  man 
and  his  wife  who  had  three  children. 
They  had  just  returned  from  the  temple 
in  Switzerland,  and  she  said  this: 
"Brother  Richards,  we  have  been  mem- 
bers of  the  Church  for  only  six  years, 
and  we  figure  we  are  only  six  years  old. 
We  did  not  know  how  to  live,  and 
what  to  live  for,  until  we  found  the 
Church." 

When  you  stop  to  think  in  those 
lands,  according  to  reports,  there  are 
only  about  five  percent  (I  think  it  was 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


First  Day 

three,  but  to  be  safe  I  will  say  five  per- 
cent) of  the  people  of  those  lands  who 
attend  church  at  all  of  any  kind,  and 
then  you  know  how  little  there  can  be 
in  their  lives  really  to  live  for.  Some- 
times I  thought  as  we  went  through 
those  missions  that  about  all  they  live 
for  was  their  vacation,  because  they  are 
great  people  to  have  a  vacation  every 
summer.  I  will  not  take  time  to  go 
into  detail  about  that.  But  they  did 
not  seem  to  be  looking  to  eternal  life  or 
eternal  exaltation  or  eternal  compan- 
ionship with  those  whom  they  love. 
They  did  not  know  anything  about 
things  like  that.  The  newspapers  even 
write  articles  discussing  the  fact  that 
there  is  no  God. 

I  was  told  that  many  of  the  ministers 
will  openly  admit  to  their  members  that 
they  do  not  know  whether  there  is  a 
God  or  not.  So,  you  see,  they  need 
the  missionaries.  They  need  this  won- 
derful message  that  we  have. 

Speaking  of  the  temples,  I  remind  you 
of  when  Nicodemus  came  to  Jesus  by 
night  and  said: 

"Rabbi,  we  know  that  thou  art  a 
teacher  come  from  God:  for  no  man 
can  do  these  miracles  that  thou  doest, 
except  God  be  with  him. 

"Jesus  answered  and  said  unto  him, 
Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  thee,  Except 
a  man  be  born  again,  he  cannot  see 
the  kingdom  of  God." 

And  Nicodemus,  you  will  remember, 
could  not  understand  that,  so  he  said, 

"How  can  a  man  be  born  when  he 
is  old?  can  he  enter  the  second  time 
into  his  mother's  womb,  and  be  born?" 

And  Jesus  said: 

".  .  .  Except  a  man  be  born  of  water 
and  of  the  Spirit,  he  cannot  enter  into 
the  kingdom  of  God." 

And  Nicodemus  could  not  understand 
and  Jesus  said, 

"Art  thou  a  master  of  Israel,  and 
knowest  not  these  things? 

"Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  thee,  We 
speak  that  we  do  know  and  testify  that 
we  have  seen;  and  ye  receive  not  our 
witness. 

"If  I  have  told  you  earthly  things,  and 
ye  believe  not,  how  shall  ye  believe,  if 
I  tell  you  of  heavenly  things?"  (John 
3:2-5,  10-12.) 

And  I  have  always  thought  that  the 
heavenly  things  that  Jesus  spoke  of  were 
these  wonderful  blessings  that  we  re- 


ELDER  LEGRAND  RICHARDS 


35 


ceive  in  the  temples  of  the  Lord,  and 
I  thank  the  Lord  that  temples  are  reach- 
ing out  to  our  people  in  these  far-off 
lands. 

In  1906  I  heard  President  Joseph  F. 
Smith  make  this  statement  in  Rotter- 
dam, Holland:  "The  day  will  come 
when  temples  of  the  Lord  will  dot  this 
whole  land  of  Europe,"  and  I  have  lived 
long  enough  to  see  two  of  them  there, 
and  I  tell  you  it  is  changing  the  feeling 
of  our  people  toward  the  Church  to 
know  that  these  glorious  blessings  are 
coming  within  their  reach. 

As  we  went  to  leave  the  London  Tem- 
ple to  come  home,  one  good  brother, 
who  must  have  been  in  his  sixties,  said, 
"Brother  Richards,  why  couldn't  I  have 
known  this  thirty  years  ago?  Why 
couldn't  I  have  had  the  joy  all  these 
years  of  helping  to  build  the  kingdom?" 

That  is  the  spirit  of  this  work.  There 
is  not  much  time  left,  but  I  would  just 
like  to  reminisce  a  moment.  When  I 
went  on  my  first  mission  as  a  young 
man  of  nineteen,  we  were  instructed 
by  President  Anthon  H.  Lund  before 
we  left  for  our  missions.  Among  other 
things  he  said,  "Brethren,  the  people 
will  love  you.  Now  don't  get  lifted 
up  in  the  pride  of  your  hearts  and  think 
that  they  love  you  because  you  are  better 
than  other  people.  They  will  love  you 
because  of  your  calling  and  the  Spirit 
of  the  Lord  that  you  take  with  you  and 
the  priesthood  that  you  bear." 

I  didn't  understand  too  much  what 
that  meant  as  a  boy,  but  after  I  filled 
my  first  mission  there  in  Holland,  I 
wept  more  tears  a  hundred  times  over 
as  I  took  the  train  from  Amsterdam  to 
Rotterdam  than  I  shed  when  I  said 
farewell  to  my  loved  ones  to  go  to  that 
land. 

I  went  into  one  home  where  I  had 
the  privilege  of  bringing  the  gospel,  and 
the  little  woman,  a  mother  of  about 
eight  children,  looked  up  into  my  eyes, 
and  the  tears  rolled  down  her  cheeks, 
clear  down  the  front  of  her  dress,  and 
she  said,  "Brother  Richards,  it  was  hard 
to  see  my  daughter  leave  for  Zion  a 
few  weeks  ago,  but  it  is  a  lot  harder  to 
see  you  go,"  and  then  I  knew  what 
Brother  Lund  meant  when  he  said, 
"They  will  love  you.  They  will  love 
you  because  of  the  message  that  you 
bring  to  them." 

Then  I  went  to  say  good-bye  to  a 


man  who  was  in  the  government  serv- 
ice. He  stood  erect  in  uniform.  He  was 
old  enough  to  be  my  father.  He  got 
down  on  his  knees,  took  my  hand  in  his, 
and  hugged  it  and  kissed  it  and  bathed 
it  with  his  tears,  and  then  I  understood 
what  Brother  Lund  meant  when  he 
said,  "They  will  love  you." 

I  tell  you,  brothers  and  sisters,  we 
should  be  grateful  for  this  great  mis- 
sionary system  that  is  bringing  so  much 
joy,  happiness,  and  peace  into  the  lives 
of  our  people.  That  little  family  who 
did  not  know  how  to  live  until  they 
had  found  the  Church,  and  then  just 
think  of  the  revelation  to  them  of  the 
marvelous  truths  of  the  gospel,  eternal 
duration  of  the  marriage  covenant — 
they  will  have  their  children  in  the 
eternal  world — and  that  they  can  be 
exalted  in  the  presence  of  God,  the 
Eternal  Father,  and  his  Son,  Jesus 
Christ!  Compare  that  to  what  they 
have  in  a  nation  where  the  people  have 
almost  deserted  their  faith  in  God. 

I  pray  God  to  bless  us  all  and  help 
us  to  be  worthy  of  our  heritage  and  to 
give  freely,  and  I  do  want  to  commend 
others  who  have  sent  money  into  those 
missions  to  help  the  local  young  people 
to  fill  missions,  for  they  are  doing  a 
great  work.  And  if  any  of  the  rest  of 
you  are  financially  able  and  you  would 
like  to  lay  up  a  few  more  treasures  in 
heaven,  I  invite  you  to  do  the  same. 

I  leave  you  my  blessings  and  pray 
God  to  be  with  you  all,  and  bear  wit- 
ness of  his  truth  in  the  name  of  the  Lord, 
Jesus  Christ.  Amen. 

President  David  O.  McKay: 

The  Presiding  Bishopric  of  the  Church 
will  hold  a  special  meeting  tonight  in 
this  building  at  six  o'clock.  All  stake 
presidencies,  bishoprics,  members  of 
stake  and  ward  Aaronic  Priesthood  com- 
mittees are  invited  to  attend.  There 
will  be  an  Agricultural  Meeting  con- 
ducted by  the  General  Welfare  Commit- 
tee in  the  Assembly  Hall  tomorrow 
at  7:30  a.m.  All  stake  presidents,  and 
bishops  who  operate  welfare  farms,  and 
all  ward  and  stake  welfare  representa- 
tives are  invited. 

He  to  whom  we  have  just  listened  is 
Elder  LeGrand  Richards,  member  of 
the  Council  of  the  Twelve.  The  singing 
for  this  session  has  been  furnished  by 


36 

Friday,  October  9 

the  Relief  Society  Singing  Mothers  un- 
der the  direction  of  Florence  Jepperson 
Madsen,  with  Elder  Frank  W.  Asper  at 
the  organ.  We  have  been  most  fortunate 
to  be  present  or  to  be  listening  in  dur- 
ing these  two  sessions  at  which  the 
Singing  Mothers  have  furnished  such 
inspirational  music.  There  is  something 
about  our  mothers  that  always  touches 
a  tender  spot  in  our  hearts.  "She  of 
whom  you  speak,"  said  one  poet,  "my 
mother,  seems  as  pure  and  whole  as 
some  serene  creation  minted  in  the 
golden  moods  of  sovereign  artists — not 
a  thought,  a  touch,  but  pure  as  lines  of 
green  that  streak  the  first  white  of  the 
snowdrop's  inner  leaves."  And  when 
you  have  a  group  of  mothers  singing  the 
songs  of  Zion  under  the  inspirational 
leadership  of  this  wonderful  woman, 
Sister  Madsen,  you  cannot  refrain  from 
having  a  welling  up  in  your  heart  of 
thoughts  that  seldom  come.  Sister  Mad- 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


First  Day 

sen,  and  Singing  Mothers,  we  thank  you 
for  the  service  you  have  rendered  this 
day.  God  bless  you  and  keep  you  as 
you  continue  to  render  your  sweet  in- 
fluence upon  the  lives  of  men. 

The  Singing  Mothers  will  now  give  us, 
"Send  Forth  Thy  Spirit,"  and  the  bene- 
diction will  be  offered  by  Elder  D. 
Arthur  Haycock,  recently  president  of 
the  Hawaii  Mission.  Following  the 
benediction  this  Conference  will  be 
adjourned  until  ten  o'clock  tomorrow 
morning. 


"Send  Forth  Thy  Spirit,"  was  rendered 
by  the  Singing  Mothers. 

The  closing  prayer  was  offered  by 
Elder  D.  Arthur  Haycock,  formerly 
president  of  the  Hawaii  Mission. 

Conference  adjourned  until  10  o'clock 
a.m.,  Saturday,  October  10,  1959. 


SECOND  DAY 
MORNING  MEETING 


The  third  session  convened  in  the 
Tabernacle  at  10  o'clock  a.m.,  Saturday, 
October  10,  1959,  with  President  David 
O.  McKay  conducting  the  meeting. 

The  choral  singing  for  this  session  was 
furnished  by  the  University  of  Utah 
Choral  Society  (The  Institute  of  Re- 
ligion and  the  University  of  Utah 
Choruses  and  the  Bonneville  Strings), 
conducted  by  David  A.  Shand,  with  Roy 
M.  Darley  at  the  organ. 

President  David  O.  McKay: 

Members  of  the  Church  are  convened 
in  the  Tabernacle  on  Temple  Square 
in  the  third  session  of  the  One  Hundred 
Twenty-Ninth  Semi-Annual  Conference 
of  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter- 
day  Saints.  All  members  of  the  General 
Authorities  are  present,  excepting  Elders 
Harold  B.  Lee  and  Marion  G.  Romney. 
Brother  Lee  is  in  South  America  to  offi- 
ciate at  the  organization  of  two  new 
missions,  the  Andes  Mission  and  the 
Brazilian  South  Mission.  Elder  Romney 
is  officially  visiting  missions  in  Europe. 
He  has  organized  also  the  new  South 
German  Mission. 


[The  following  letter  was  received 
by  the  First  Presidency  from  Elder 
Harold  B.  Lee  and  his  wife,  Sister 
Fern  T.  Lee,  written  from  Montevideo, 
Uruguay. 

Dear  Brethren: 

This  is  probably  the  last  communi- 
cation I  will  be  able  to  have  before 
the  convening  of  the  forthcoming 
General  Conference  of  the  Church. 

With  a  sense  of  the  great  responsi- 
bility resting  upon  the  First  Presi- 
dency during  our  great  General 
Conferences,  our  prayers  have  been 
for  you  that  you  might  be  sustained 
in  strength  and  with  the  high  spiritual 
response  necessary  to  measure  to  the 
expectations  of  the  Church  and  to  our 
Heavenly  Father  in  the  high  per- 
formance of  your  personal  responsi- 
bilities. 

Needless  to  say,  we  have  a  longing 
to  be  with  you,  to  participate  in  the 
uplift  which  always  comes,  not  only 
from  our  intimate  association  with  our 
brethren  of  the  General  Authorities, 
but  also  from  the  great  outpouring  of 
the  Spirit  which  always  comes  when 


PRESIDENT  D 

the  Latter-day  Saints  meet  together 
in  General  Conference.  We  have  the 
feeling,  however,  that  our  absence 
from  General  Conference  by  the  ap- 
pointment of  the  First  Presidency  will 
only  serve  to  impress  in  the  minds  of 
the  Church  members  generally  the 
great  importance  of  the  foreign  mis- 
sions, so  important  that  if  necessary 
it  justifies  the  absence  of  General  Au- 
thorities from  General  Conference  in 
order  to  give  proper  attention  to  the 
work  of  these  missions. 

In  our  humble  way,  and  to  the  best 
of  our  abilities  therefore,  we  shall  en- 
deavor to  extend  ourselves  during  this 
mission  tour,  and  particularly  during 
the  period  of  the  General  Conference, 
to  transmit  to  the  wonderful  humble 
Saints  who  would  also  like  to  be  at  the 
General  Conferences  the  love  and 
blessing  of  the  First  Presidency  and  to 
endeavor  to  instruct  them  as  the  Spirit 
may  direct  as  you  would  have  us  in- 
struct them  were  they  permitted  to 
be  under  the  sound  of  your  voices  in 
the  General  Conferences. 

Will  you,  therefore,  extend  to  our 
fellow  workers  of  the  Ceneral  Authori- 
ties our  affectionate  regards  and 
prayers  for  them  as  they  partcipate  in 
the  forthcoming  General  Conference, 
and  to  the  faithful  Saints  may  we 
extend  our  love  and  blessing  as  one 
of  the  least  of  our  Father's  servants. 
Such  an  absence  as  this  assignment 
requires  only  serves  to  intensify  the 
great  privilege  of  a  close  bond  which 
attendance  at  such  a  conference  pro- 
vides. 

With  kindest  personal  regards  and 
assurances  of  our  affectionate  and 
loyal  support  in  all  the  proceedings 
of  the  Conference  as  it  carries  for- 
ward, we  are  your  humble  servants, 

Harold  B.  and  Fern  T.  Lee 

P.S.  We  have  just  concluded  a  con- 
ference in  the  great  city  of  Montevideo 
with  675  in  attendance.] 

We  welcome  this  large  audience  in 
the  Tabernacle  and  all  who  are  listening 
in  by  radio  and  television.  We  express 
appreciation  for  the  presence  of  stake 
presidencies,  bishoprics,  other  Church 


/ID  O.  McKAY  37 

officials  and  also  our  state  and  city  offi- 
cials and  educational  leaders. 

This  session  of  Conference  will  be 
broadcast  as  a  public  service  over  tele- 
vision and  radio  stations  throughout  the 
West.  We  appreciate  the  service  that 
is  being  rendered  by  the  owners  and 
managers  of  these  various  stations.  The 
names  of  the  stations  were  announced 
just  prior  to  the  opening  of  this  session. 
These  services  are  also  being  broadcast 
in  the  Assembly  Hall  and  in  Barratt 
Hall  by  television. 

The  singing  for  this  session  will  be 
furnished  by  the  University  of  Utah 
Choral  Society  made  up  of  the  Institute 
of  Religion  and  the  University  of  Utah 
Choruses  and  the  Bonneville  Strings, 
conducted  by  Elder  David  A.  Shand, 
Roy  M.  Darley,  the  Assistant  Organist, 
is  at  the  organ. 

We  shall  begin  these  services  by  the 
University  of  Utah  Choral  Society  sing- 
ing "The  Morning  Breaks,"  under  Elder 
Shand's  direction.  The  opening  prayer 
will  be  offered  by  Elder  J.  Earl  Lewis, 
formerly  president  of  the  Canadian  Mis- 
sion. The  Chorus  will  now  sing  "The 
Morning  Breaks." 


The  Combined  Choruses  sang  the 
hymn,  "The  Morning  Breaks." 

Elder  J.  Earl  Lewis,  formerly  presi- 
dent of  the  Canadian  Mission,  offered 
the  invocation. 

President  David  O.  McKay: 

The  invocation  was  just  offered  by 
Elder  J.  Earl  Lewis,  formerly  president 
of  the  Canadian  Mission. 

The  University  of  Utah  Choral  So- 
ciety— the  Institute  of  Religion  at  the 
University  and  the  University  of  Utah 
Choruses  and  the  Bonneville  Strings — 
will  now  favor  us  with  "Supplication," 
under  the  direction  of  Elder  David  A. 
Shand,  after  which  Elder  Joseph  Ander- 
son, Clerk  of  the  Conference,  will  read 
the  changes  in  stake,  ward,  and  branch 
organizations  since  April  Conference, 
1959,  and  the  obituaries  of  the  Church. 


The  Combined  Choruses  and  Strings 
presented  the  number,  "Supplication." 


38 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


Saturday,  October  10 

Elder  Joseph  Anderson,  Clerk  of  the 
Conference,  then  read  statistical  data: 

CHANGES  IN  CHURCH  OFFICERS 
TEMPLE,  MISSION,  STAKE,  WARD, 
AND  BRANCH  ORGANIZATIONS 
SINCE  APRIL  CONFERENCE,  1959 

TEMPLE  PRESIDENTS  APPOINTED 

Manti  Temple:  A.  Bent  Peterson,  to 
succeed  Lewis  R.  Anderson. 

NEW  MISSIONS  ORGANIZED 

Andes  Mission,  formerly  part  of  the 
Argentine  and  Uruguayan  Missions. 

Brazilian  South  Mission,  formerly  part 
of  the  Brazilian  Mission. 

South  German  Mission,  formerly  part 
of  the  West  German  Mission. 

MISSION  PRESIDENTS  APPOINTED 

Andes  Mission:  J.  Vernon  Sharp. 
Brazilian  South  Mission:  Asael  T. 
Sorensen. 

Danish  Mission:  Levi  B.  Thorup,  to 
succeed  Holger  P.  Petersen. 

East  Central  States  Mission:  Frank  H. 
Brown,  to  succeed  M.  Ross  Richards. 

Great  Lakes  Mission:  John  E.  Carr  to 
succeed  Reuel  E.  Christensen. 

Netherlands  Mission:  J.  Henry  Volker 
to  succeed  Rulon  J.  Sperry. 

Northern  California  Mission:  Warren 
E.  Pugh,  to  succeed  J.  Leonard  Love. 

Northwestern  States  Mission:  Franklin 
D.  Richards,  to  succeed  Douglas  H. 
Driggs. 

South  German  Mission:  John  A. 
Buehner. 

Southern  Far  East  Mission:  Robert  S. 
Taylor,  to  succeed  Herald  Grant  Heaton. 

Swedish  Mission:  A.  Gideon  Omer,  to 
succeed  Harry  T.  Oscarson. 

Swiss- Austrian  Mission:  William  S. 
Erekson,  to  succeed  Jesse  R.  Curtis. 

Tongan  Mission:  Mark  Vernon 
Coombs  to  succeed  Fred  W.  Stone. 

NEW  STAKES  ORGANIZED 

Cheyenne  Stake,  organized  June  21, 
1959  from  parts  of  Denver  Stake  and 
the  Western  States  Mission. 

Clearfield  Stake,  organized  April  12, 
1959  by  division  of  North  Davis  Stake. 


Second  Day 

Denver  West  Stake,  organized  June 
21,  1959  by  division  of  Denver  Stake. 

East  Idaho  Falls  Stake,  organized  June 
7,  1959  by  division  of  Idaho  Falls  Stake. 

Huntington  Park  Stake,  organized 
April  19,  1959  by  division  of  South  Los 
Angeles  Stake. 

Indianapolis  Stake,  organized  May  17, 
1959  from  a  part  of  the  Great  Lakes 
Mission. 

Mojave  Stake,  organized  August  16, 
1959  by  division  of  Bakersfield  and  San 
Bernardino  Stakes  and  from  a  part  of 
the  California  Mission. 

Pocatello  Stake,  organized  April  19, 
1959  by  division  of  West  Pocatello  Stake. 

Sandy  Stake,  organized  April  12,  1959 
by  division  of  Mt.  Jordan  Stake. 

Torrance  Stake,  organized  May  3, 
1959  by  division  of  Redondo  Stake. 

West  Covina  Stake,  organized  May  3, 
1959  by  division  of  Covina  Stake. 

Whittier  Stake,  organized  April  26, 
1959  by  division  of  East  Los  Angeles 
Stake. 

Yakima  Stake,  organized  May  24,  1959 
by  division  of  Richland  Stake. 

STAKE  PRESIDENTS  APPOINTED 

Alberta  Stake:  Lloyd  D.  Cahoon,  to 
succeed  Gordon  S.  Brewerton. 

Box  Elder  Stake:  O.  Dee  Lund,  to 
succeed  Glen  M.  Bennion. 

Butte  Stake:  Charles  W.  Hanna,  to 
succeed  Edgar  T.  Henderson. 

Cheyenne  Stake:  Archie  R.  Boyack. 

Clearfield  Stake:  George  Smith  Has- 
lam. 

Columbia  River  Stake:  Byron  V. 
Mumford,  to  succeed  Royle  S.  Papworth. 

Covina  Stake:  Emerson  L.  Crawley,  to 
succeed  Elden  L.  Ord. 

Denver  West  Stake:  Thomas  Lloyd 
Kimball. 

East  Idaho  Falls  Stake:  Charles  P. 
Brizzee. 

Farr  West  Stake:  George  Albert  Wim- 
mer,  to  succeed  Raymond  J.  Pace. 

Fresno  Stake:  Dallas  Alma  Tueller, 
to  succeed  Alwyn  C.  Sessions. 

Grand  Coulee  Stake:  Thurn  J.  Baker, 
to  succeed  Elmo  J.  Bergeson. 

Huntington  Park  Stake:  Clifford  B. 
Wright. 

Idaho   Falls    Stake:   Paul  Wendell 
Ahlstrom,  to  succeed  Charles  P.  Brizzee. 
Indianapolis  Stake:  Philip  F.  Low. 
Mojave  Stake:  Sterling  A.  Johnson. 


CHANGES  IN  CHURCH  ORGANIZATIONS 


39 


Mt.  Jordan  Stake:  George  B.  Roden,  to 
succeed  Stanley  A.  Rasmussen. 

Nebo  Stake:  Reed  Jex  Money,  to  suc- 
ceed Delphin  S.  Hiatt. 

North  Davis  Stake:  Joseph  Cook,  to 
succeed  George  S.  Haslam. 

North  Tooele  Stake:  Sherman  A. 
Lindholm,  to  succeed  Orlando  T.  Bar- 
rus. 

Pocatello  Stake:  Roland  K.  Hart. 

Roosevelt  Stake:  Paul  Murphy,  to 
succeed  Ezra  J.  Nixon. 

Sandy  Stake:  Stanley  A.  Rasmussen; 
Marlon  S.  Bateman,  to  succeed  Stanley 
A.  Rasmussen. 

Smithfield  Stake:  Lyle  R.  Cooley,  to 
succeed  J.  Byron  Ravsten. 

South  Los  Angeles  Stake:  Harold  F. 
Whittier,  to  succeed  Clifford  B.  Wright. 

Southern  Arizona  Stake:  Bruce  Melvin 
Gibson,  to  succeed  Jared  J.  Trejo. 

Tooele  Stake:  Howard  James  Clegg,  to 
succeed  Alex  F.  Dunn. 

Torrance  Stake:  Roland  Earl  Gagon. 

Weiser  Stake:  Owen  Spencer  Jacobs, 
to  succeed  J.  Raymond  Dewey. 

West  Covina  Stake:  Mark  Woodrow 
Smith. 

West  Pocatello  Stake:  Willis  Richard 
Ward,  to  succeed  Myron  L.  Western. 
Whittier  Stake:  John  Collings. 
Yakima  Stake:  F.  Edgar  Johnson. 

STAKE  NAMES  CHANGED 

Pocatello  Stake,  changed  to  East  Poca- 
tello Stake. 

South  Box  Elder  Stake,  changed  to  Box 
Elder  Stake. 

NEW  WARDS  ORGANIZED 

Auckland  Stake:  Auckland  Seventh 
Ward,  formed  by  division  of  Auckland 
Second  and  Third  Wards. 

Bear  River  Stake:  Curlew  Ward, 
formed  by  consolidation  of  Stone  and 
Snowville  Wards;  Belmont  Ward, 
formed  by  division  of  Fielding  Ward  and 
consolidation  of  Riverside  and  Plymouth 
Wards. 

Boise  Stake:  Grand  View  Ward,  form- 
erly Grand  View  Branch. 

Brigham  Young  University  Stake:  B. 
Y.  Campus  Twenty-Fifth  Ward,  formed 
from  various  wards;  B.  Y.  Campus 
Twenty-Sixth  Ward,  formed  from 
various  wards. 


Carbon  Stake:  Dragerton  Second 
Ward,  formed  by  division  of  Dragerton 
Ward. 

Cheyenne  Stake:  Scotts  Bluff  Ward, 
formerly  a  branch  in  the  Western  States 
Mission. 

Chicago  Stake:  Logan  Square  Second 
Ward,  formed  by  division  of  Logan 
Square  Ward;  North  Shore  Second  Ward, 
formed  by  division  of  North  Shore  Ward. 

Cincinnati  Stake:  Georgetown  Ward, 
formerly  Georgetown  Branch. 

Covina  Stake:  Glendora  Second  Ward, 
formed  by  division  of  Glendora  and 
Azusa  Wards. 

Denver  Stake:  Denver  Eighth  Ward, 
formerly  Derby  Branch. 

Denver  West  Stake:  Denver  Ninth 
Ward,  formed  by  division  of  Denver 
Second  Ward. 

East  Idaho  Falls  Stake:  Idaho  Falls 
Twenty-Fourth  Ward,  formed  by  divi- 
sion of  Idaho  Falls  Twentieth  Ward; 
Idaho  Falls  Twenty-Fifth  Ward,  formed 
by  division  of  Idaho  Falls  Twenty-First 
Ward. 

East  Los  Angeles  Stake:  Belvedere 
Ward,  formerly  Ditman  Branch. 

East  Mill  Creek  Stake:  East  Mill  Creek 
Sixth  Ward,  formed  by  division  of  East 
Mill  Creek  Fourth  Ward;  East  Mill 
Creek  Seventh  Ward,  formed  by  division 
of  East  Mill  Creek  Third  Ward. 

Ensign  Stake:  East  Eighteenth  Ward, 
formed  by  division  of  North  and  South 
Eighteenth  Wards;  East  Twentieth 
Ward,  formed  by  division  of  North  and 
South  Twentieth  Wards. 

Hayward  Stake:  Hayward  Third 
Ward,  formed  by  division  of  Hayward 
Second  and  Centerville  Wards;  San 
Leandro  Second  Ward,  formed  by  divi- 
sion of  San  Leandro  Ward. 

Indianapolis  Stake:  Bloomington,  Co- 
lumbus, Indianapolis,  Indianapolis  Sec- 
ond, Muncie,  Purdue,  and  Richmond 
Wards,  formerly  branches  in  the  Great 
Lakes  Mission. 

Klamath  Stake:  Klamath  Falls  Sec- 
ond Ward,  formed  by  division  of 
Klamath  Falls  Ward. 

Lake  View  Stake:  Roy  Seventh  Ward, 
formed  by  division  of  Roy  Second  Ward. 

Mojave  Stake:  Barstow  and  Ridgecrest 
Wards,  formerly  Branches  in  the  Cali- 
fornia Mission. 

Nampa  Stake:  Nampa  Fifth  Ward, 
formed  by  division  of  Nampa  Second 


40 

Saturday,  October  10 

Ward;  Nampa  Sixth  Ward,  formed  by 
division  of  Nampa  Fourth  Ward. 

Nevada  Stake:  Ely  Third  Ward, 
formed  by  division  of  Ely  First  and  Sec- 
ond Wards. 

New  Orleans  Stake:  Jefferson  Ward, 
formed  by  division  of  New  Orleans 
Ward. 

North  Idaho  Falls  Stake:  Idaho  Falls 
Twenty-Third  Ward,  formed  by  divi- 
sion of  Idaho  Falls  Seventeenth  Ward. 

North  Rexburg  Stake:  Rexburg  Eighth 
Ward,  formed  by  division  of  Rexburg 
First  Ward. 

North  Seattle  Stake:  Everett  Second 
Ward,  formed  by  division  of  Everett 
Ward;  Mount  Vernon  Ward,  formerly 
Sedro-Woolley  Branch. 

Oahu  Stake:  Pearl  City  Ward,  form- 
erly Pearl  City  Branch;  Nanakuli  Ward, 
formerly  Nanakuli  Branch. 

Phoenix  Stake:  Tolleson  Ward,  form- 
erly Avondale  Branch. 

Reseda  Stake:  Canoga  Park  Second 
Ward,  formed  by  division  of  Canoga 
Park  Ward. 

Richland  Stake:  Columbia  Basin 
Ward,  formerly  Columbia  Basin  Branch; 
Connell  Ward,  formerly  C  o  n  n  e  1 1 
Branch. 

Rigby  Stake:  Monteview  Ward,  formed 
by  division  of  Terreton  Ward. 

Sandy  Stake;  Sandy  Eighth  Ward, 
formed  by  division  of  Sandy  Seventh 
Ward. 

Santa  Ana  Stake:  Garden  Grove  Third 
Ward,  formed  by  division  of  Garden 
Grove  Second  Ward. 

South  Ogden  Stake:  Ogden  Sixtieth 
Ward,  formed  by  division  of  Ogden 
Fifty-Eighth  Ward. 

Tacoma  Stake:  Kent  Ward,  formerly 
Kent  Branch;  Tacoma  Sixth  Ward, 
formed  by  division  of  Tacoma  First 
Ward. 

Taylorsville  Stake:  Taylorsville  Third 
Ward,  formed  by  division  of  Taylors- 
ville Ward;  Taylorsville  Fourth  Ward, 
formed  by  division  of  Taylorsville  Sec- 
ond Ward. 

Union  Stake:  Baker  Second  Ward, 
formed  by  division  of  Baker  Ward. 

University  Stake:  University  Fifth 
Ward,  formed  by  division  of  University 
Second  Ward. 

Utah  State  University  Stake:  Univer- 
sity Seventh  Ward,  formed  by  division 
of  University  Second  and  Third  Wards; 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


Second  Day 

University  Eighth  Ward,  formed  by  di- 
vision of  University  Fourth  Ward; 
University  Ninth  Ward,  formed  from 
various  wards. 

Wells  Stake:  McKay  Second  Ward, 
formed  by  division  of  McKay  and  Water- 
loo Wards. 

West  Boise  Stake:  Boise  Tenth  Ward, 
formed  by  division  of  Boise  Third  Ward; 
Boise  Eleventh  Ward,  formed  by  divi- 
sion of  Boise  Eighth  Ward;  Eagle  Ward, 
formerly  Eagle  Branch. 

West  Jordan  Stake:  West  Jordan 
Fourth  Ward,  formed  by  division  of 
West  Jordan  Second  Ward. 

West  Utah  Stake:  Sunset  Third  Ward, 
formed  by  division  of  Provo  Eleventh 
and  Sunset  Wards. 

West  Sharon  Stake:  Orem  Twenty- 
Second  Ward,  formed  by  division  of 
Orem  Fifteenth  Ward. 

WARDS  AND  BRANCHES 
TRANSFERRED 

Cheyenne  Stake:  Cheyenne,  Fort  Col- 
lins, Laramie  and  Laramie  Second 
Wards,  formerly  of  Denver  Stake; 
Scotts  Bluff  Ward,  Greeley  and  Torring- 
ton  Branches,  formerly  of  the  Western 
States  Mission. 

Clearfield  Stake:  Clearfield  First,  Sec- 
ond, Third,  Fourth,  Fifth,  and  Sixth 
Wards,  and  Anchorage  Branch,  formerly 
of  North  Davis  Stake. 

Denver  West  Stake:  Denver  Second, 
Fifth,  Sixth,  Seventh,  and  Boulder 
Wards,  formerly  of  Denver  Stake. 

East  Idaho  Falls  Stake:  Iona,  Iona 
Second  and  Lincoln  Wards,  formerly  of 
Idaho  Falls  Stake. 

Huntington  Park  Stake:  Bell,  May- 
wood,  Huntington  Park,  Walnut  Park, 
Grant,  Downey  First,  and  Downey  Third 
Wards,  formerly  of  South  Los  Angeles 
Stake. 

Indianapolis  Stake:  Bloomington,  Co- 
lumbus, Indianapolis,  Indianapolis  Sec- 
ond, Muncie,  Purdue,  and  Richmond 
Wards;  Anderson,  Connersville,  and 
Kokomo  Branches,  formerly  of  the  Great 
Lakes  Mission. 

Mojave  Stake:  Lancaster,  Lancaster 
Second,  and  Palmdale  Wards;  Edwards, 
and  Mojave  Branches,  formerly  of  Bak- 
ersfield  Stake;  Barstow  and  Ridgecrest 
Wards  and  Trona  Branch,  formerly  of 
the  California  Mission;  Victorville  Ward 


CHANGES  IN  CHURCH  ORGANIZATIONS 


41 


and  Lucerne  Valley  Branch,  formerly 
of  San  Bernardino  Stake. 

North  Davis  Stake:  Clinton  Ward, 
formerly  of  Lake  View  Stake. 

Pocatello  Stake:  Pocatello  First, 
Third,  Tenth,  Eleventh,  Nineteenth, 
and  Twentieth  Wards,  formerly  of  West 
Pocatello  Stake. 

Sandy  Stake:  Sandy  First,  Second, 
Third,  Fourth,  Fifth,  Sixth,  and  Seventh 
Wards,  formerly  of  Mt.  Jordan  Stake. 

South  Los  Angeles  Stake:  Lynwood 
and  Lynwood  Second  Wards,  formerly 
of  Long  Beach  Stake. 

Torrance  Stake:  Lomita,  Palos  Verdes, 
Redondo,  San  Pedro,  Torrance  and 
Wilmington  Wards,  formerly  of  Redon- 
do Stake. 

West  Covina  Stake:  Baldwin  Park,  El 
Monte,  El  Monte  Second,  LaPuente, 
LaPuente  Second,  North  El  Monte, 
and  West  Covina  Wards,  formerly  of 
Covina  Stake. 

Whittier  Stake:  Whittier  First,  Second, 
Third,  and  Fourth  Wards,  formerly  of 
East  Los  Angeles  Stake. 

Yakima  Stake:  Sunnyside,  Toppenish, 
Yakima,  Yakima  Second  Wards  and 
Prosser  Branch,  formerly  of  Richland 
Stake;  Ellensburg  Ward,  formerly  of 
Grand  Coulee  Stake. 

WARD  AND  BRANCH  NAMES 
CHANGED 

Ensign  Stake:  Eighteenth  Ward, 
formerly  South  Eighteenth  Ward; 
Twentieth  Ward,  formerly  South  Twen- 
tieth Ward. 

Klamath  Stake:  Klamath  Falls  First 
Ward,  formerly  Klamath  Falls  Ward. 

Maricopa  Stake:  University  Ward, 
formerly  College  Ward. 

Weiser  Stake:  Cambridge  Branch, 
formerly  Weiser  River  Branch. 

INDEPENDENT  BRANCHES 
ORGANIZED 

Albuquerque  Stake:  Los  Lunas  Branch, 
formed  by  division  of  Albuquerque  Third 
Ward. 

Bakersfield  Stake:  Tehachapi  Branch, 
formed  by  division  of  Mojave  Branch. 

Cheyenne  Stake:  Greeley  and  Torring- 
ton  Branches,  formerly  branches  in  the 
Western  States  Mission. 

Denver  West  Stake:  Golden  Branch, 
formed  by  division  of  Denver  Second 
Ward. 


Indianapolis  Stake:  Anderson,  Con- 
nersville,  and  Kokomo  Branches,  former- 
ly branches  in  the  Great  Lakes  Mission. 

Lewiston  Stake:  Colfax  Branch. 

Mojave  Stake:  Trona  Branch,  formerly 
a  branch  in  the  California  Mission. 

New  Orleans  Stake:  Pascagoula 
Branch,  formed  by  division  of  Biloxi 
Ward. 

Reno  Stake:  Quincy  Branch,  formed 
by  division  of  Greenville  Branch. 

Reseda  Stake:  Thousand  Oaks  Branch. 

Richland  Stake:  Benton  City  Branch, 
formed  by  division  of  Richland  Third 
Ward. 

San  Bernardino  Stake:  Lake  Arrow- 
head Branch,  formed  by  division  of  San 
Bernardino  Second  Ward. 

Shreveport  Stake:  Tyler  Branch, 
formed  by  division  of  Kilgore  Branch. 

Washington  Stake:  Annapolis  Branch, 
formerly  dependent  upon  Capitol  Ward. 

WARDS  AND  INDEPENDENT 
BRANCHES  DISCONTINUED 

Bear  River  Stake:  Riverside  and  Ply- 
mouth Wards,  membership  transferred 
to  Belmont  Ward;  Stone  and  Snowville 
Wards,  membership  transferred  to  Cur- 
lew Ward. 

Big  Horn  Stake:  Cowley  Second  Ward, 
membership  transferred  to  Cowley 
Ward;  The  four  Lovell  Wards  were  con- 
solidated into  three  wards  to  be  known 
as  the  Lovell,  Lovell  Second  and  Lovell 
Third  Wards. 

East  Los  Angeles  Stake:  Belvedere 
Ward,  membership  transferred  to  East- 
mont,  Montebello,  and  Alhambra 
Wards. 

Farr  West  Stake:  Little  Valley  Branch, 
membership  transferred  to  various  wards. 

New  Orleans  Stake:  Darbun  Branch, 
membership  transferred  to  Columbia 
Ward. 

San  Antonio  Stake:  San  Marcos 
Branch,  membership  transferred  to 
various  wards. 

Shreveport  Stake:  Kilgore  Branch, 
made  dependent  upon  Tyler  Branch. 

Tooele  Stake:  Deseret  Branch,  mem- 
bership transferred  to  Stockton  Ward; 
Ophir  Branch,  membership  transferred 
to  Stockton  Ward. 

Union  Stake:  Brownlee  Branch,  mem- 
bership transferred  to  Halfway  Branch. 


42 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


Saturday,  October  10 

THOSE  WHO  HAVE  PASSED  AWAY 

President  Stephen  L  Richards,  First 
Counselor  in  the  First  Presidency. 

Leonard  E.  Adams,  member  of  the 
General  Church  Welfare  Committee. 

Gordon  S.  Brewerton,  president  of  Al- 
berta Stake. 

President  David  O.  McKay: 

Brother  Joseph  Anderson,  Clerk  of 
the  Conference,  has  just  read  the 
changes  in  the  ward  and  stake  organiza- 
tions and  the  obituaries  of  the  Church 
since  last  April. 

President  J.  Reuben  Clark,  Jr.  of  the 
First  Presidency,  will  now  present  for 
your  consideration  and  action,  the  Gen- 
eral Authorities,  General  Officers,  and 
General  Auxiliary  Officers  of  the  Church 
for  the  sustaining  vote  of  this  General 
Conference. 

We  are  very  thankful  to  have  Presi- 
dent Clark  with  us  during  this  Confer- 
ence. Recently  he  was  unwell  but 
through  the  faith  and  prayers  of  the 
Saints,  and  the  inspiration  of  the 
Brethren,  he  is  able  to  attend  to  his 
duties  at  the  office  and  to  meet  with  us 
and  speak  to  us  this  morning.  After  he 
presents  the  names  of  the  General  Au- 
thorities and  General  Officers  he  will 
speak  to  us.  The  Lord  bless  him. 

Brother  George  Q.  Morris  will  be  on 
hand  to  speak  to  us  after  President 
Clark.  We  shall  now  have  the  presenta- 


Second  Day 

tion  of  the  General  Officers  of  the 
Church. 

President  J.  Reuben  Clark,  Jr.: 

My  brothers  and  sisters:  May  I  invoke 
and  have  the  aid  and  assistance  of  your 
faith  and  prayers.  I  am  indeed  grateful 
to  be  here  with  you  this  morning.  The 
blessings,  promises,  and  administrations 
of  the  Brethren  and  the  prayers  of  the 
Saints  have  brought  to  me  the  blessings 
of  the  Lord.  I  am  grateful  for  them. 
My  recovery  has  been  such,  through  the 
blessings  of  the  Lord  and  the  tender 
care  and  nursing  of  my  family,  par- 
ticularly my  daughters,  and  the  aid  and 
care  and  solicitude  of  my  physician,  who 
says  that  my  recovery  is  miraculous.  I 
give  my  deep  gratitude  and  thanks. 

We  are  met  this  morning  to  take  part 
in  one  of  the  great  ordinances  of  the 
Church.  As  I  proceed  in  presenting  the 
Authorities,  I  shall  speak  to  you  mem- 
bers of  the  Church  as  the  Church  in 
Solemn  Assembly  for  this  purpose  among 
others.  When  you  vote,  you  will  vote 
as  the  Church,  and  the  promises  you 
make  to  support  and  sustain  the  Authori- 
ties in  their  work,  will  be  the  vote  of 
the  Church,  not  merely  your  vote  as 
members. 

This  is  a  very  solemn  and  important 
occasion,  and  a  very  solemn  gathering 
and  ordinance  of  this  Church.  I  hope 
we  will  not  forget  it,  for  your  action  is 
the  action  of  the  Church  and  binds  it. 


GENERAL  AUTHORITIES  OF  THE  CHURCH 

The  First  Presidency 

David  O.  McKay,  Prophet,  Seer  and  Revelator,  and  President  of  The  Church 
of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints. 

J.  Reuben  Clark,  Jr.,  First  Counselor  in  the  First  Presidency. 
Henry  D.  Moyle,  Second  Counselor  in  the  First  Presidency. 

President  of  the  Council  of  the  Twelve  Apostles 
Joseph  Fielding  Smith 

Quorum  of  the  Twelve  Apostles 


Joseph  Fielding  Smith 
Harold  B.  Lee 
Spencer  W.  Kimball 
Ezra  Taft  Benson 
Mark  E.  Petersen 
Delbert  L.  Stapley 


Marion  G.  Romney 
LeGrand  Richards 
Richard  L.  Evans 
George  Q.  Morris 
Hugh  B.  Brown 
Howard  W.  Hunter 


GENERAL  AUTHORITIES  OF  THE  CHURCH  43 

Patriarch  to  the  Church 
Eldred  G.  Smith 

The  Counselors  in  the  First  Presidency,  the  Twelve  Apostles  and  the  Patriarch 
to  the  Church  as  Prophets,  Seers  and  Revel  ators. 

Assistants  to  the  Twelve 

Alma  Sonne  Gordon  B.  Hinckley 

EIRay  L.  Christiansen  Henry  D.  Taylor 

John  Longden  William  T.  Critchlow,  Jr. 

Sterling  W.  Sill  Alvin  R.  Dyer 

Trustee-in-Trust 
David  O.  McKay 

as  Trustee-in-Trust  for  The  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints. 

The  First  Council  of  the  Seventy 

Levi  Edgar  Young  Bruce  R.  McConkie 

Antoine  R.  Ivins  Marion  D.  Hanks 

Seymour  Dilworth  Young  Albert  Theodore  Tuttle 

Milton  R.  Hunter 

Presiding  Bishopric 

Joseph  L.  Wirthlin,  Presiding  Bishop 
Thorpe  B.  Isaacson,  First  Counselor 
Carl  W.  Buehner,  Second  Counselor 

GENERAL  OFFICERS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

Church  Historian  and  Recorder 

Joseph  Fielding  Smith, 
with  A.  William  Lund  and  Preston  Nibley  as  Assistants. 

Church  Board  of  Education 

David  O.  McKay  Delbert  L.  Stapley 

J.  Reuben  Clark,  Jr.  Marion  G.  Romney 

Henry  D.  Moyle  LeGrand  Richards 

Joseph  Fielding  Smith  Richard  L.  Evans 

Harold  B.  Lee  George  Q.  Morris 

Spencer  W.  Kimball  Hugh  B.  Brown 

Ezra  Taft  Benson  Howard  W.  Hunter 
Mark  E.  Petersen 

Administrator,  Board  of  Education 
Ernest  L.  Wilkinson 

Church  Auditing  Committee 

Orval  W.  Adams 
Harold  H.  Bennett 


44  GENERAL  CONFERENCE 

Saturday,  October  10  Second  Day 

Tabernacle  Choir 

Lester  F.  Hewlett,  President 
Richard  P.  Condie,  Conductor 
Jay  E.  Welch,  Assistant  Conductor 

Organists 

Alexander  Schreiner 

Frank  W.  Asper 

Roy  M.  Darley,  Assistant 

CHURCH  WELFARE  COMMITTEE 
Advisers 

Harold  B.  Lee  John  Longden 

Delbert  L.  Stapley  Henry  D.  Taylor 

Marion  G.  Romney  Antoine  R.  Ivins 

LeGrand  Richards .  Joseph  L.  Wirthlin 

Alma  Sonne  Thorpe  B.  Isaacson 

EIRay  L.  Christiansen  Carl  W.  Buehner 

and  the  General  Presidency  of  Relief  Society 

General  Church  Welfare  Committee 

Marion  G.  Romney,  Chairman 
Henry  D.  Taylor,  Managing  Director 

Paul  C.  Child  LeRoy  A.  Wirthlin 

Mark  B.  Garff  Walter  Stover 

J.  Leonard  Love  A.  Lewis  Elggren 

William  T.  Lawrence  Donald  Ellsworth 

Lorenzo  H.  Hatch  Casper  H.  Parker 
Walter  Dansie 


GENERAL  AUXILIARY  OFFICERS  OF  THE  CHURCH 
Relief  Society 

Belle  Smith  Spafford,  President 
Marianne  Clark  Sharp,  First  Counselor 
Louise  Wallace  Madsen,  Second  Counselor 
with  all  members  of  the  Board  as  at  present  constituted. 

Deseret  Sunday  School  Union 

George  R.  Hill,  General  Superintendent 
David  Lawrence  McKay,  First  Assistant  Superintendent 
Lynn  S.  Richards,  Second  Assistant  Superintendent 
with  all  members  of  the  Board  as  at  present  constituted. 

Young  Men's  Mutual  Improvement  Association 

Joseph  T.  Bentley,  General  Superintendent 
George  Carlos  Smith,  Jr.,  First  Assistant  Superintendent 
Marvin  J.  Ashton,  Second  Assistant  Superintendent 
with  all  members  of  the  Board  as  at  present  constituted. 


PRESIDENT  /.  REUBEN  CLARK,  JR. 

Young  Women's  Mutual  Improvement  Association 

Bertha  S.  Reeder,  President 
Emily  H.  Bennett,  First  Counselor 
LaRue  C.  Longden,  Second  Counselor 
with  all  members  of  the  Board  as  at  present  constituted. 

Primary  Association 

LaVern  W.  Parmley,  President 
Arta  M.  Hale,  First  Counselor 
Leone  W.  Doxey,  Second  Counselor 
with  all  members  of  the  Board  as  at  present  constituted. 


45 


President  J.  Reuben  Clark,  Jr.: 

President  McKay,  so  far  as  I  could 


observe,  the  voting  of  the  Conference  of 
this  Church  was  unanimous  in  the 
affirmative. 


PRESIDENT  J.  REUBEN  CLARK,  JR. 

First  Counselor  in  the  First  Presidency 


First,  I  am  grateful  for  your  promotion 
to  First  Counselor.  I  am  grateful  for 
your  sustaining  vote  for  Brother  Moyle, 
who  fills  a  great  need  that  we  had  in 
the  First  Presidency.  He  is  indomitable 
in  his  courage  and  has  only  the  welfare 
of  the  Church  at  heart. 

But  we  miss  Brother  Stephen  L  Rich- 
ards. We  miss  his  gentleness,  his 
kindness,  his  wisdom,  his  experience, 
his  courtesy,  his  loyalty  to  the  Church, 
and  his  great  work  in  connection  with 
the  missionary  service.  We  miss  Presi- 
dent Richards. 

I  now  recall  vividly  the  great  address 
of  President  McKay,  and  I  endorse  all 
that  has  been  said,  not  only  by  him  in 
that  address  but  by  all  the  Brethren 
who  have  followed.  This  has  been  a 
great  conference,  filled  to  overflowing 
with  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord. 

I  am  grateful  for  all  this  and  with 
the  President's  permission,  I  want  to  add 
a  word  or  two,  more  particularly  on  the 
world  condition. 

When  Christ  came  to  the  earth,  there 
was,  so  far  as  I  know,  only  one  nation, 
the  Hebrew  nation,  that  understood  and 
worshiped  the  true  God,  the  God  of 
Sinai — "Thou  shalt  have  no  other  gods 
before  me."  (Exodus  20:3.) 

He  commissioned  his  apostles: 

"Go  ye  into  all  the  world,  and  preach 
the  gospel  to  every  creature. 

"He  that  believeth  and  is  baptized 


shall  be  saved;  but  he  that  believeth  not 
shall  be  damned."  (Mark  16:15-16.) 

The  latter  "and  is  baptized"  was  added 
in  our  day,  for  we  received  the  very 
same  commission.  And  there  was  en- 
trusted to  us  the  opening,  and  the  carry- 
ing on,  of  the  Last  Dispensation  of  the 
Fulness  of  Times,  and  we  have  been  au- 
thorized further  and  commissioned 
thereto,  by  the  ordination  and  conferring 
at  the  hands  of  heavenly  messengers,  the 
Holy  Priesthood  after  the  Order  of  the 
Son  of  God,  divided  into  two,  the  Mel- 
chizedek  and  the  Aaronic,  that  we  might 
avoid  the  constant  repetition  of  the  name 
of  the  Son. 

The  whole  world,  when  Christ  left, 
except  the  Hebrews,  on  the  eastern  conti- 
nent, except  the  Hebrews  and  the  few 
that  Christ  left,  a  few  hundred,  were 
pagans,  not  believing  in  the  God  of 
Sinai  and  of  course,  not  believing  in  the 
gospel  as  did  not  generally  the  Hebrew 
nation.  We  have  been  fighting  for  two 
thousand  years  until  today,  titularly  at 
any  rate,  not  quite  half  of  the  in- 
habitants of  the  world  believe  in  this 
God  of  Sinai  and  in  the  Christ.  The 
other  half  is  pagan  who  do  not  accept 
God,  the  God  of  Abraham,  Isaac,  and 
Jacob,  and  our  God,  the  God  of  the 
Christian  world,  but  who  have  some- 
thing that  is  equivalent  thereto  that 
satisfies  them,  but  it  is  pagan. 

But  we  have  this  added  situation:  we 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


46 

Saturday,  October  10 

have  the  man  described  by  President 
McKay  and  commented  upon  so  well, 
who  in  effect  is  the  directing  head  of 
this  whole  great  body  of  paganism  in 
their  ideology  and  in  their  non-belief  in 
God.  I  think  this  is  the  first  time  in 
all  history  when  God's  people  have  been 
faced  with  an  organized  paganism  more 
or  less  guided  and  directed  by  one  who 
denies  God  and  says  he- is  unconvertible 
from  his  atheism. 

We  get  the  impression  that  he  has 
in  mind  that  his  Marxian  ideology,  and 
his  atheism,  shall  gain  control  some- 
how and  make  of  all  of  us  the  followers 
of  his  doctrines.  He  preaches  peace,  I 
may  say,  and  then  he  preaches  the 
abandonment  of  certain  weapons  of  war, 
then  he  preaches  that  we  go  back  to 
traditional  warfare,  where  numbers 
count,  he  preaches  that  we  shall  destroy 
our  military  installations,  and  if  he  gets 
rid  of  these,  I  see  no  end  to  what  he  may 
try  to  do. 

The  whole  Western  world,  the  Chris- 
tian, the  God-fearing  world,  with  the 
exceptions  that  exist  in  each  country 
that  follows  Marxism,  with  the  excep- 
tion that  exists  in  Russia,  relatively  few, 
but  perhaps  in  good  part  many,  these 
are  the  things  which  we  face  under  his 
direction. 

Now,  let  us  have  no  illusions  about 
this,  brethren  and  sisters.  The  plan  is 
really  one  of  exterminating  God  and 
Christianity.  Into  our  hands  has  been 
placed  through  divine  ordinations  the 
Holy  Priesthood  after  the  Order  of  the 
Son  of  God.  In  our  hands  is  the  re- 
sponsibility of  carrying  forward. 

We  do  not  have  now  a  united  front  to 
this  united  paganism.  We  are  still  torn 
and  divided  among  many  sects.  But 
the  problem  we  face,  if  the  plans  of  the 
Marxian  paganism  are  carried  out,  is  our 
extermination. 

God  has  declared  that  the  Lord  will 
never  take  away  or  give  to  another  people 
the  authority  and  the  gospel  plan  which 
we  have.  I  want  to  bring  home  to  every 
one  of  you  brethren  and  sisters  of  the 
Church,  and  to  others  so  far  as  I  may 
speak,  the  seriousness  of  this  situation. 
You  cannot  mollify  an  unconvertible, 
you  may  not  hope  that  after  his  ends  are 
gained,  for  any  but  the  treatment  he  has 
administered  upon  others. 

There  are  good  people  in  Russia. 
There  are  faithful  people  in  Russia. 


Second  Day 

Elder  Benson  has  recently  met  a  few  of 
them.  But  they  live  under  this  Marxian 
theory,  and  one  of  the  elements  of  that 
is  the  destruction  of  free  agency  which 
was  given  to  the  sons  of  God  before  the 
world  was  created.  Through  it  there 
was  the  rebellion  in  heaven.  Through 
free  agency  we  climb  to  the  heights  that 
lead  us  into  exaltation.  The  Marxian 
theology  repudiates  God. 

I  have  a  feeling,  brothers  and  sisters, 
that  any  man  or  woman  who  voluntarily 
subjects  himself  to  this  pagan  ideology, 
who  voluntarily  lives  within  its  jurisdic- 
tion, who  voluntarily  under  this  theory 
gives  up  his  free  agency,  has  lost  his 
testimony  and  is  on  the  road  to  apostasy. 

I  cannot  bring  too  strongly  that  here 
in  the  last  days,  paganism  is  under  one 
head,  and  that  head  is  guided  by  Satan 
himself.  Please,  brethren  and  sisters 
of  the  Church,  keep  the  home  fires  of 
testimony  and  knowledge  of  the  gospel 
and  of  God  and  of  Jesus  Christ,  keep  the 
home  fires  burning  in  your  homes,  in 
your  priesthood  quorums,  and  all  the 
rest,  for  I  am  sure,  one  way  or  another, 
we  shall  have  to  face  dire  persecution. 

I  bear  my  testimony  that  God  lives, 
that  Jesus  is  the  Christ,  the  Savior  of  the 
world,  the  Redeemer  of  mankind,  the 
first  fruits  of  the  resurrection.  I  bear  my 
testimony  that  the  authority  of  the  Holy 
Order  of  the  Priesthood  of  the  Son  of 
God  is  upon  the  earth,  bestowed  through 
heavenly  messengers  upon  Joseph  Smith, 
who  has  given  to  us  the  plan  of  the 
gospel.  I  bear  my  testimony  that  the 
powers  and  authority  that  were  given  to 
Joseph  Smith  have  passed  on  down 
through,  from  President  to  President, 
until  we  have  now  President  David  O. 
McKay,  who  stands  by  your  sustaining 
vote,  as  the  prophet,  seer,  and  revelator, 
and  President  of  the  Church  of  Jesus 
Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints,  and  that  he 
possesses  all  that  his  predecessors  have 
had  who  have  gone  before. 

May  God  bless  us  all. 

I  thank  you  for  the  strength  that  has 
been  mine,  and  I  do  it  in  the  name  of 
Jesus.  Amen. 

President  David  O.  McKay: 

President  J.  Reuben  Clark,  Jr.  of  the 
First  Presidency  has  just  concluded 
speaking.    He  also  just  presented  the 


ELDER  GEORGE  Q.  MORRIS 


47 


General  Authorities,  General  Officers, 
General  Auxiliary  Officers  of  the  Church 
for  your  sustaining  vote.  We  thank  you, 
brothers  and  sisters,  for  your  unanimous 
vote  in  the  affirmative. 
Brother  Howard  W.  Hunter,  will  you 


please  come  forward  and  take  your  place 
in  the  Council  of  the  Twelve. 

We  shall  now  hear  from  Elder  George 
Q.  Morris  of  the  Council  of  the  Twelve. 
He  will  be  followed  by  Elder  Bruce  R. 
McConkie. 


ELDER  GEORGE  Q.  MORRIS 

Of  the  Council  of  the  Twelve  Apostles 


My  dear  brethren  and  sisters,  I  am 
wholly  dependent  upon  the  blessings  of 
the  Lord,  and  pray  that  his  Holy  Spirit 
may  direct  me  to  say  that  which  he 
would  have  me  say. 

Yesterday  we  heard  something  about 
youth  marriages,  ninety  percent  of  which 
end  in  divorce.  [See  Elder  Mark  E. 
Petersen's  address.]  A  very  deplorable 
condition  was  reported  as  prevailing  in 
some  places  among  some  people.  I 
should  like,  if  the  Lord  will  bless  me 
to  that  end,  to  say  something  about  a 
form  of  marriage  that  our  people,  young 
and  old,  may  enter  into,  one  that  our 
people  should  look  forward  to  and  be 
prepared  for,  and  I  am  persuaded  that 
because  many  are  not  so  prepared, 
there  is  a  lack  of  proper  understanding 
among  parents  and  children  and  a  lack 
of  proper  appreciation  of  the  great  im- 
portance of  this  marriage  that  involves 
the  salvation  and  eternal  life  of  our 
people. 

We  speak  of  salvation,  and  I  am 
wondering  if  we  know  what  it  means. 
The  Lord  made  this  wonderful  declara- 
tion among  the  glorious  things  that  he 
has  told  us:  "For  behold,  this  is  my 
work  and  my  glory — to  bring  to  pass  the 
immortality  and  eternal  life  of  man." 
(Moses  1:39.) 

What  is  eternal  life?  What  is  im- 
mortality? What  is  exaltation  and  sal- 
vation? The  Lord  says:  "And  this  is 
life  eternal,  that  they  might  know  thee 
the  only  true  God,  and  Jesus  Christ, 
whom  thou  hast  sent."  (John  17:3.) 

The  Lord  Jesus  Christ  said,  as  we  have 
it  in  the  New  Testament:  "And  as  Moses 
lifted  up  the  serpent  in  the  wilderness, 
even  so  must  the  Son  of  man  be  lifted 

UP- 

.  . .  That  whosoever  believeth  in  him 
should  not  perish,  but  have  eternal  life." 
(Ibid.,  3:14-15.)  This  is  understood  as 
salvation  through  the  gospel  of  Jesus 
Christ 


First,  what  is  immortality?  In  the 
29th  section  of  the  Doctrine  and  Cove- 
nants the  Lord  said:  "And  thus  did  I, 
the  Lord  God,  appoint  unto  man  the 
days  of  his  probation — that  by  his 
natural  death  he  might  be  raised  in 
immortality"— death  is  the  door  to  im- 
mortality— and  then  the  Lord  con- 
tinues, "unto  eternal  life,  even  as  many 
as  would  believe; 

"And  they  that  believe  not  unto 
eternal  damnation.  .  .  ."  (D&C  29:43- 
44.) 

So  through  the  atonement  of  Jesus 
Christ  immortality  comes,  and  has 
come  to  every  human  soul,  and  will 
always  come.  The  Lord  also  says  in 
the  29th  section  that  the  trump  should 
sound  for  the  resurrection,  ".  .  .  and 
then  shall  all  the  dead  awake,  for  their 
graves  shall  be  opened,  and  they  shall 
come  forth — yea,  even  all."  (Ibid., 
29:26.)  This  is  in  agreement  with  the 
teachings  in  the  New  Testament  which 
declare: 

"Marvel  not  at  this:  for  the  hour  is 
coming,  in  the  which  all  that  are  in 
the  graves  shall  hear  his  voice, 

"And  shall  come  forth;  they  that  have 
done  good,  unto  the  resurrection  of  life; 
and  they  that  have  done  evil,  unto  the 
resurrection  of  damnation."  (John  5:28- 
29.) 

So  they  shall  all  come  forth  from  the 
grave.  What  then?  The  Prophet 
Amulek  says:  "Now,  behold,  I  have 
spoken  unto  you  concerning  the  death 
of  the  mortal  body,  and  also  concerning 
the  resurrection  of  the  mortal  body.  I 
say  unto  you  that  this  mortal  body  is 
raised  to  an  immortal  body,  that  is  from 
death,  even  from  the  first  death  unto 
life,  that  they  can  die  no  more;  their 
spirits  uniting  with  their  bodies,  never 
to  be  divided;  thus  the  whole  becoming 
spiritual  and  immortal,  that  they  can 
no  more  see  corruption."  (Alma  11:45.) 
This  is  immortality.   It  comes  to  every 


48 

Saturday,  October  10 

soul,  good  or  bad,  believer  or  non- 
believer.  It  has  already  been  estab- 
lished for  all  the  souls  of  man  who  ever 
have  lived  or  who  will  live  in  the 
future. 

Now  what  is  eternal  life?  In  at- 
tempting to  discuss  this  great  subject, 
and  the  time  so  short,  I  thought  I  might 
bring  to  you  the  words  of  the  Lord  him- 
self upon  this  subject  so  that  you  may 
ponder  them  as  you  may  have  oppor- 
tunity. The  Lord  defines  eternal  life 
very  clearly  in  the  88th  section  of  the 
Doctrine  and  Covenants,  fourth  verse. 

"This  Comforter  is  the  promise  which 
I  give  unto  you  of  eternal  life,  even  the 
glory  of  the  celestial  kingdom";  Then 
to  make  plain  that  eternal  life  is  the 
fulness  of  the  celestial  glory,  he  explains 
further,  "Which  glory  is  that  of  the 
church  of  the  Firstborn,  even  of  God, 
the  holiest  of  all,  through  Jesus  Christ 
his  Son—"  (D&C  88:4-5.) 

I  refer  you  to  section  76:53-70  of  the 
Doctrine  and  Covenants,  which  explains 
in  more  detail  the  fulness  of  the  glory 
of  the  celestial  kingdom,  which  the 
Lord  says  is  eternal  life,  which  he 
further  confirms  when  he  said,  ".  .  .  if 
you  keep  my  commandments  and  en- 
dure to  the  end  you  shall  have  eternal 
life,  which  gift  is  the  greatest  of  all  the 
gifts  of  God."  (Ibid.,  14:7.)  This  then 
is  eternal  life. 

And  how  shall  we  obtain  eternal  life? 
Well,  only  through  the  gospel  of  Jesus 
Christ.  There  is  no  other  way,  and 
as  President  Smith  emphasized  yester- 
day, the  salvation  that  we  are  talking 
about  as  servants  of  God  and  the  people 
of  God  with  this  dispensation  of  the 
gospel  given  to  us  for  the  world,  is 
exaltation,  a  fulness  of  God's  gift,  eternal 
life. 

Now,  the  Lord  revealed  the  glorious 
principles  of  the  gospel  in  the  Book  of 
Mormon  as  restored  through  the  Prophet 
Joseph,  and  for  fourteen  years  the  Lord 
revealed  to  the  Prophet  Joseph  Smith 
principles  of  life  and  salvation.  One 
of  these  revelations  is  the  132nd  section 
of  the  Doctrine  and  Covenants,  regard- 
ing the  "new  and  everlasting  covenant 
of  marriage,"  which  is  very  specific  in 
its  character,  and  the  Lord,  in  mention- 
ing it  and  introducing  the  subject  to 
the  Prophet,  makes  these  very  striking 
and  significant  statements: 

"For  behold,  I  reveal  unto  you  a  new 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


Second  Day 

and  an  everlasting  covenant;  and  if  ye 
abide  not  that  covenant,  then  are  ye 
damned;  for  no  one  can  reject  this 
covenant  and  be  permitted  to  enter  into 
my  glory."  (Ibid.,  132:4.) 

Remember  that  statement — the  cove- 
nant of  celestial  or  heavenly  marriage, 
if  rejected  by  us,  shuts  us  out  of  his 
glory. 

"For  all  who  will  have  a  blessing 
at  my  hands  shall  abide  the  law  which 
was  appointed  for  that  blessing,  and  the 
conditions  thereof,  as  were  instituted 
from  before  the  foundation  of  the  world. 

"And  as  pertaining  to  the  new  and 
everlasting  covenant,  it  was  instituted 
for  the  fulness  of  my  glory;  and  he  that 
receiveth  a  fulness  thereof  must  and 
shall  abide  the  law,  or  he  shall  be 
damned,  .  .  ."  (Ibid.,  5-6.) 

Now  that  is  as  explicit  and  plain 
as  anything  could  be,  and  the  fulness 
of  God's  glory  is  eternal  life,  the  great- 
est gift  that  God  can  give  and  that  is 
involved  in  this  principle  of  marriage, 
as  instituted  of  God  by  the  authority 
of  God,  and  in  being  true  to  the  cove- 
nants of  that  marriage. 

Then  the  Lord,  to  explain  the  princi- 
ple more  clearly,  refers  to  the  ordinary 
marriage.  He  says:  "And  everything 
that  is  in  the  world,  whether  it  be 
ordained  of  men,  by  thrones,  or  princi- 
palities, or  powers,  or  things  of  name, 
whatsoever  they  may  be,  that  are  not  by 
me  or  by  my  word,  saith  the  Lord,  shall 
be  thrown  down,  and  shall  not  remain 
after  men  are  dead,  neither  in  nor  after 
the  resurrection,  saith  the  Lord  your 
God. 

"For  whatsoever  things  remain  are  by 
me;  and  whatsoever  things  are  not  by 
me  shall  be  shaken  and  destroyed. 

"Therefore,  if  a  man  marry  him  a 
wife  in  the  world,  and  he  marry  her  not 
by  me  nor  by  my  word,  and  he  cove- 
nant with  her  so  long  as  he  is  in  the 
world  and  she  with  him,  their  cove- 
nant and  marriage  are  not  of  force  when 
they  are  dead,  and  when  they  are  out 
of  the  world;  therefore,  they  are  not 
bound  by  any  law  when  they  are  out  of 
the  world."  (Ibid.,  13-15.) 

Then  note  what  follows:  "Therefore, 
when  they  are  out  of  the  world  they 
neither  marry  nor  are  given  in  mar- 
riage; but  are  appointed  angels  in  heav- 
en, which  angels  are  ministering 
servants,  to  minister  for  those  who  are 


ELDER  GEORGE  Q.  MORRIS 


49 


worthy  of  a  far  more,  and  an  exceeding, 
and  an  eternal  weight  of  glory."  (Ibid., 
16.) 

The  status  has  changed.  The  Lord 
continues,  "For  these  angels  did  not 
abide  my  law;  therefore,  they  cannot  be 
enlarged,  but  remain  separately  and 
singly,  without  exaltation,  in  their 
saved  condition,  to  all  eternity;  and  from 
henceforth  are  not  gods,  but  are  angels 
of  God  forever  and  ever."  (Ibid.,  17.) 

They  may  be  saved  in  the  celestial 
kingdom,  but  they  cannot  be  enlarged, 
and  forever  and  ever  they  remain  a  per- 
son of  a  lower  degree — a  lower  order  of 
being,  stripped  of  the  greatest  power, 
that  of  eternal  increase. 

"For  strait  is  the  gate,"  the  Lord  con- 
tinues, "and  narrow  the  way  that  lead- 
eth  unto  the  exaltation  and  continuation 
of  the  lives,  and  few  there  be  that  find 
it,  because  ye  receive  me  not  in  the 
world  neither  do  ye  know  me.  .  .  . 

"Broad  is  the  gate,  and  wide  the 
way  that  leadeth  to  the  deaths;  and 
many  there  are  that  go  in  thereat,  be- 
cause they  receive  me  not,  neither  do 
they  abide  in  my  law."  (Ibid.,  22,  25.) 

Therefore  we  see  that  eternal  life 
which  God  says  it  is  his  glory  and 
honor  to  bring  to  mankind  is  gained  by 
obedience  to  the  law  of  eternal  marriage, 
which  is  instituted  before  the  founda- 
tions of  the  world,  to  bring  about  the 
fulness  of  exaltation. 

In  the  132nd  section  of  the  Doctrine 
and  Covenants,  verses  19-21,  the  Lord 
explains  the  covenant  and  blessings  of 
celestial  marriage  as  follows: 

"And  again,  verily  I  say  unto  you,  if 
a  man  marry  a  wife  by  my  word,  which 
is  my  law,  and  by  the  new  and  ever- 
lasting covenant,  and  it  is  sealed  unto 
them  by  the  Holy  Spirit  of  promise,  by 
him  who  is  anointed,  unto  whom  I  have 
appointed  this  power  and  the  keys  of 
this  priesthood;  and  it  shall  be  said 
unto  them — Ye  shall  come  forth  in  the 
first  resurrection;  and  if  it  be  after 
the  first  resurrection,  in  the  next 
resurrection;  and  shall  inherit  thrones, 
kingdoms,  principalities,  and  powers, 
dominions,  all  heights  and  depths — 
then  shall  it  be  written  in  the  Lamb's 
Book  of  Life,  that  he  shall  commit  no 
murder  whereby  to  shed  innocent  blood, 
and  if  ye  abide  in  my  covenant,  and 
commit  no  murder  whereby  to  shed 
innocent  blood,  it  shall  be  done  unto 


them  in  all  things  whatsoever  my 
servant  hath  put  upon  them,  in  time, 
and  through  all  eternity;  and  shall  be 
of  full  force  when  they  are  out  of  the 
world;  and  they  shall  pass  by  the  an- 
gels, and  the  gods,  which  are  set  there, 
to  their  exaltation  and  glory  in  all 
things,  as  hath  been  sealed  upon  their 
heads,  which  glory  shall  be  a  fulness 
and  a  continuation  of  the  seeds  forever 
and  ever. 

"Then  shall  they  be  gods,  because 
they  have  no  end;  therefore  shall  they 
be  from  everlasting  to  everlasting,  be- 
cause they  continue;  then  shall  they  be 
above  all,  because  all  things  are  subject 
unto  them.  Then  shall  they  be  gods, 
because  they  have  all  power,  and  the 
angels  are  subject  unto  them. 

"Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you,  except 
ye  abide  my  law  ye  cannot  attain  to 
this  glory." 

Now  I  believe  that  our  teachers,  our 
leaders,  and  our  parents  must  be  taught 
and  must  teach  these  principles.  They 
are  as  clear  as  words  can  make  them,  as 
the  Lord  has  explained  them.  I  can- 
not help  feeling  that  many  are  not 
being  properly  married  because  they 
are  not  properly  taught.  It  is  not 
enough  to  urge  temple  marriage.  They 
must  know  what  temple  marriage 
means.  It  is  a  matter  of  eternal  life 
and  exaltation  in  the  presence  of  God 
forever  and  forever. 

I  close  with  a  statement  of  the  Prophet 
Joseph  Smith:  "In  the  celestial  glory 
there  are  three  heavens  or  degrees; 

"And  in  order  to  obtain  the  highest, 
a  man  must  enter  into  this  order  of  the 
priesthood  [meaning  the  new  and  ever- 
lasting covenant  of  marriage]; 

"And  if  he  does  not,  he  cannot  obtain 

it. 

"He  may  enter  into  the  other,  but 
that  is  the  end  of  his  kingdom;  he  can- 
not have  an  increase."  (Ibid.,  131:1-4.) 

May  the  Lord  help  us  to  awaken  our 
youth  and  the  parents,  and  all  of  us, 
to  the  need  to  know  what  this  marriage 
is,  to  live  worthy  of  it,  to  be  prepared 
for  it,  for  our  youth  to  enter  into  it 
when  they  are  mature  enough,  and 
trained  enough,  and  for  all  who  have 
been  married  for  time  only  to  prepare 
themselves  for  this  glorious  covenant — 
because  in  this  marriage  that  God  has 
instituted  there  are  three  parties  to  it. 
God  is  the  principal  party,  and  the 


50 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


Saturday,  October  10 

union  is  consummated  by  his  power  and 
his  authority,  and  his  promises  are  at- 
tached to  that  union.  If,  in  it,  we  are 
faithful  and  true  to  the  gospel  of  Jesus 
Christ,  we  shall  be  exalted  in  his  pres- 
ence and  dwell  with  him  forever. 

May  God  give  us  the  power  to  make 
clear  to  all  these  glorious  revelations, 
now  available  to  the  world,  because 
the  gospel   has  been  restored  in  its 


Second  Day 

fulness,  and  for  the  full  salvation  of  the 
human  soul. 
In  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ.  Amen. 

President  David  O.  McKay: 

Elder  George  Q.  Morris  of  the  Coun- 
cil of  the  Twelve  has  just  spoken  to  us. 
Elder  Bruce  R.  McConkie  of  the  First 
Council  of  Seventy  will  now  address 
us. 


ELDER  BRUCE  R.  McCONKIE 

Of  the  First  Council  of  the  Seventy 


May  I  take  as  a  text  these  words  which 
were  dictated  by  the  Holy  Ghost  to  an 
inspired  man  in  ancient  Israel: 

"The  law  of  the  Lord  is  perfect,  con- 
verting the  soul:  the  testimony  of  the 
Lord  is  sure,  making  wise  the  simple. 

"The  statutes  of  the  Lord  are  right, 
rejoicing  the  heart:  the  commandment 
of  the  Lord  is  pure,  enlightening  the 
eyes. 

"The  fear  of  the  Lord  is  clean,  endur- 
ing for  ever:  the  judgments  of  the  Lord 
are  true  and  righteous  altogether. 

"More  to  be  desired  are  they  than  gold, 
yea,  than  much  fine  gold:  sweeter  also 
than  honey  and  the  honeycomb. 

"Moreover  by  them  is  thy  servant 
warned:  and  in  keeping  of  them  there  is 
great  reward."  (Psalm  19:7-11.) 

Now  if  I  may  be  enlightened  by  the 
same  Spirit  that  rested  upon  him  who 
wrote  these  words,  I  would  like  to  indi- 
cate the  great  compelling  necessity,  the 
overwhelming  obligation,  that  rests  up- 
on us  as  members  of  this  great  latter-day 
kingdom,  to  come  to  a  knowledge  of 
the  law  of  the  Lord,  to  know  the  doc- 
trines of  the  gospel,  to  understand  the 
principles,  requirements,  and  ordinances 
which  we  must  comply  with  in  order 
to  be  heirs  of  salvation  in  the  Lord's 
kingdom. 

We  believe  and  advocate  that  every 
member  of  this  Church  should  have  a 
testimony  of  the  divinity  of  the  work; 
that  he  should  know  for  himself,  inde- 
pendent of  any  other  person,  that  Jesus 
Christ  is  the  Son  of  God,  and  that  salva- 
tion is  in  him;  that  Joseph  Smith  is  the 
agent  and  instrument  through  whom 
the  knowledge  of  salvation  has  come 
again  in  our  day;  and  that  the  mantle 
of  the  Prophet  rests  upon  President 


David  O.  McKay  at  this  time.  By  first 
gaining  a  testimony  and  then  by  being 
valiant  in  testimony,  we  can  be  heirs 
of  salvation. 

But  no  man  can  have  a  testimony  of 
this  work  until  he  begins  to  get  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  gospel.  A  testimony  is  based 
on  knowledge;  first  a  man  must  learn 
about  God  and  his  laws,  and  then  by 
obedience  to  these  laws  he  will  gain  a 
testimony.  Jesus  said,  ".  .  .  My  doctrine 
is  not  mine,  but  his  that  sent  me. 

"If  any  man  will  do  his  will,  he  shall 
know  of  the  doctrine,  whether  it  be  of 
God,  or  whether  I  speak  of  myself." 
(John  7:16-17.) 

We  believe  that  all  members  of  this 
Church  should  be  fully  and  completely 
converted,  so  much  so  that  they  are 
changed  from  a  natural  and  fallen  state 
into  saints  of  God,  changed  into  a  state 
where  they  have  in  their  hearts  desires 
for  righteousness.  By  following  such  a 
course  they  are  born  again;  they  are  re- 
newed of  the  Spirit;  they  are  in  line  for 
eternal  salvation.  But  no  one  can  attain 
unto  such  a  state  until  he  knows  the 
laws  that  govern  the  process  of  being 
converted. 

We  believe  that  after  we  join  this 
Church  it  is  incumbent  upon  us  to  press 
forward  in  steadfastness  and  in  devotion, 
living  by  every  word  that  proceedetk 
forth  from  the  mouth  of  God,  desiring 
righteousness,  seeking  his  Spirit,  loving 
him  with  all  our  hearts,  mights,  minds, 
and  strength;  and  yet  we  cannot  do  any 
of  these  things  until  we  first  learn  the 
laws  which  govern  them.  In  the  full 
gospel  sense,  there  is  no  such  thing  as 
living  a  law  of  which  we  are  ignorant. 
We  cannot  worship  a  God  of  whom  we 
know  nothing,  as  far  as  gaining  eternal 


ELDER  BRUCE  R.  McCONKIE 


51 


life  through  that  worship  is  concerned. 

And  so  I  think  we  have  the  obligation, 
the  great  underlying  responsibility,  to 
learn  the  doctrines  of  the  Church  so 
that  we  will  be  able  to  serve  in  the 
kingdom,  so  that  we  will  be  able  to  carry 
the  message  of  salvation  to  our  Father's 
other  children,  and  so  that  we  will  be 
able  to  live  in  such  a  manner  as  to  have 
peace  and  joy  ourselves,  and  gain  this 
hope  of  glorious  exaltation  and  eternal 
life  of  which  Brother  George  Q.  Morris 
has  been  speaking. 

We  have  been  commanded  to  do  this 
very  thing.  We  say,  for  instance,  that 
no  man  can  be  saved  in  ignorance,  and 
we  mean  in  ignorance  of  Jesus  Christ 
and  the  saving  truths  of  the  gospel.  We 
say  that  men  are  saved  no  faster  than 
they  gain  knowledge,  and  we  mean 
knowledge  of  God  and  the  principles 
and  doctrines  which  he  has  revealed. 
We  say  that  the  glory  of  God  is  intelli- 
gence, and  we  mean  that  his  glory  is 
light  and  truth — including  the  revealed 
light  of  heaven  and  the  truths  of  salva- 
tion. 

When  Moses  was  finishing  his  min- 
istry in  ancient  Israel,  after  he  had  led 
that  people  through  all  their  travails 
in  the  wilderness,  he,  being  moved  upon 
by  the  Spirit,  took  occasion  to  summarize 
the  laws,  the  statutes,  the  judgments, 
the  ordinances,  the  things  that  they, 
Israel,  would  be  required  to  do;  and 
after  having  so  done,  he  said  this: 

"And  these  words,  which  I  command 
thee  this  day,  shall  be  in  thine  heart: 

"And  thou  shalt  teach  them  diligently 
unto  thy  children,  and  shalt  talk  of 
them  when  thou  sittest  in  thine  house, 
and  when  thou  walkest  by  the  way,  and 
when  thou  liest  down,  and  when  thou 
risest  up. 

"And  thou  shalt  bind  them  for  a  sign 
upon  thine  hand,  and  they  shall  be  as 
frontlets  between  thine  eyes. 

"And  thou  shalt  write  them  upon  the 
posts  of  thy  house,  and  on  thy  gates." 
(Deut.  6:6-9.) 

In  other  words,  Moses  was  command- 
ing that  Israel  should  center  their 
souls  and  hearts  upon  studying  and 
knowing  and  learning  the  laws  of  the 
Lord  so  that  they  would  be  in  the  posi- 
tion and  have  the  ability  to  live  them, 
and  thus  gain  salvation  and  perform 
fully  the  mission  appointed  to  that 
chosen  people. 


Now  in  our  day  we  have  the  standard 
works  of  the  Church.  We  have  the 
Bible,  the  Book  of  Mormon,  the  Doctrine 
and  Covenants,  and  the  Pearl  of  Great 
Price.  There  are  in  these  four  books  a 
total  of  1579  chapters.  I  think  it  would 
not  be  too  much  to  say  that  we  could 
with  propriety,  day  in  and  day  out,  con- 
sistently, read  three  chapters  in  one  or 
the  other  of  these  works;  and  if  we 
pursued  such  a  course,  we  would  read 
all  of  the  Gospels  in  less  than  a  month. 
We  would  read  the  entire  New  Testa- 
ment in  three  months.  We  would  read 
the  Old  Testament  in  ten  months,  and 
the  whole  Bible  in  thirteen  months.  We 
would  go  through  the  Book  of  Mormon 
in  two  and  two-thirds  months,  the  Doc- 
trine and  Covenants  in  a  month  and  a 
half,  and  the  Pearl  of  Great  Price  in 
five  days.  Taken  altogether,  we  would 
read  all  the  standard  works  in  less  than 
eighteen  months  and  be  ready  to  start 
over  again. 

Well,  it  does  not  seem  to  me  that  the 
Lord  is  viewing  us  any  differently  from 
the  way  he  viewed  ancient  Israel.  Our 
whole  hearts  and  souls  and  our  con- 
tinual meditation  should  be  centered  on 
the  gospel  and  the  things  of  the  Lord, 
so  that  we  can  work  out  our  salvation 
and  fulfil  our  missions.  By  regular, 
systematic  study  of  the  standard  works 
we  can  go  a  long  way  toward  keeping 
in  a  course  that  will  please  the  Lord 
and  further  our  own  eternal  progression. 
In  this  way  we  can  gain  for  ourselves 
peace  and  satisfaction  and  happiness  in 
this  life  and  have  a  hope  of  eternal  life 
in  the  world  to  come. 

In  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ.  Amen. 

President  David  O.  McKay: 

Elder  Bruce  R.  McConkie  of  the  First 
Council  of  Seventy  has  just  addressed 
us. 

Professor  David  A.  Shand  will  now 
lead  the  congregation  and  Combined 
Choruses  and  the  Bonneville  Strings 
in  singing  "Come,  O  Thou  King  of 
Kings."  Bishop  Carl  W.  Buehner  will 
follow  the  singing  by  the  congregation. 


The  Congregation  and  the  Combined 
Choruses,  with  Bonneville  Strings  ac- 
companying, sang  the  hymn,  "Come, 
O  Thou  King  of  Kings." 


52  GENERAL  CONFERENCE 

Saturday,  October  10  Second  Day 

President  David  O.  McKay:  siding  Bishopric  will  now  address  us. 

He  will  be  followed  by  Elder  Alma 
Bishop  Carl  W.  Buehner  of  the  Pre-  Sonne. 

BISHOP  CARL  W.  BUEHNER 

Second  Counselor  in  the  Presiding  Bishopric 


My  dear  brethren  and  sisters,  with 
you  I  have  enjoyed  every  moment  of 
this  great  conference.  I  have  had  a 
lump  in  my  throat  a  number  of  times  as 
I  have  felt  the  power  and  Spirit  that 
has  been  present  in  these  sessions.  I 
am  very  grateful  to  you  for  your  sustain- 
ing vote  which  permits  me  to  be  with 
my  brethren  for  six  more  months. 

I  should  also  like  to  express  my  grati- 
tude in  the  selection  of  Elder  Howard 
W.  Hunter  to  become  a  member  of  the 
Council  of  the  Twelve  and  sincerely 
pray  that  the  Lord  will  magnify  and 
sustain  him  in  this  high  and  holy 
calling. 

I  must  confess  to  you  that  in  making 
preparations  for  these  few  precious  mo- 
ments, I  conferred  with  a  very  choice 
friend  of  mine.  He  has  given  me  a 
number  of  suggestions.  He  said,  "Warn 
the  young  people  how  the  evil  one, 
through  his  power,  would  like  to  destroy 
all  that  is  good  in  them,  defame  their 
character,  undermine  their  physical 
body,  and  poison  their  mind  even  as  the 
lowly  termite  can  destroy  a  building." 

Do  you  know  what  a  termite  is?  A 
termite  is  an  ugly,  little  ant-like  looking 
insect,  very  light  in  color,  that  does  all 
its  work  in  the  dark.  If  it  has  to  get 
from  the  earth  where  it  gets  its  moisture, 
to  the  area  in  which  it  finds  the  timbers 
in  which  it  works,  it  builds  itself  a  little 
channel  so  that  it  cannot  be  seen  as  it 
goes  back  and  forth.  It  costs  citizens  of 
this  country  hundreds  of  millions  of 
dollars  annually  to  replace  the  damage 
done  to  the  wood  in  buildings  by  these 
little  destroyers.  The  exterior  of  a 
structure  can  look  beautiful  and  sound, 
but  because  the  strength  of  its  timbers 
has  been  eaten  away  by  termites,  and 
only  an  outer  shell  is  left  standing,  it 
can  become  very  dangerous  and  of  little 
value.  "So  also  can  evil  influences  un- 
dermine us  and  darken  our  vision  to 
the  wonderful  blessings  ahead,"  my 
friend  said. 

My  friend  also  gave  me  this  idea:  He 


said,  "How  about  the  message  in  the 
song  that  says, 

"  'The  world  has  need  of  willing  men, 
Who  wear  the  worker's  seal. 
Come,  help  the  good  work  move  along. 
Put  your  shoulder  to  the  wheel.'  " 

I  thought  of  thousands  of  our  organiza- 
tions in  all  parts  of  the  world,  officered 
with  those  willing  and  able  to  keep  the 
good  work  moving  along.  A  tremen- 
dous effort  to  further  our  Father's 
business  is  in  progress,  and  for  each  of 
us  to  put  our  shoulder  to  the  wheel 
would  not  only  increase  this  effort  but 
also  bring  in  return,  happiness,  and 
blessings  that  could  be  secured  from  no 
other  source.  "Urge  everyone  to  go  to 
work  in  this  great  cause,"  said  my 
friend. 

I  asked  him  for  one  more  idea.  I  had 
to  admit  that  he  did  have  wonderful 
suggestions.  He  said,  "What  this 
world  needs  is  people  who  go  about 
doing  good."  One  of  the  greatest  com- 
pliments paid  to  the  Savior  was  given 
by  his  great  disciple,  Peter,  when  among 
other  things,  he  said,  and  he  ".  .  .  went 
about  doing  good.  .  .  ."  (Acts  10:38.) 
Then  my  friend  reminded  me  that  in 
my  travels  I  had  surely  observed  in- 
stances and  had  experiences  that  illus- 
trate this  very  thing.  Said  he,  "Why 
not  tell  the  people  some  of  these  things?" 

In  my  mind's  eye,  I  immediately  saw 
an  army  of  140,000  men  and  boys,  visit- 
ing among  the  wards  as  ward  teachers, 
making  in  excess  of  three  and  one-half 
million  visits  each  year  to  the  homes 
of  the  members  of  the  Church.  The 
good  that  is  being  accomplished  by 
them  and  the  blessings  they  are  bringing 
into  these  homes  cannot  be  measured. 
I  learned  recently  that  one  of  these 
ward  teachers  had  served  in  excess  of 
eighty-two  years.  It  is  said  that  in  those 
eighty-two  years,  he  missed  visiting  his 
district  only  four  or  five  times.  I  heard 
one  of  the  bishops  who  presided  over 


BISHOP  CARL  W.  BUEHNER 


53 


this  ward  pay  a  tremendous  tribute  to 
this  man.  He  indicated  that  if  there 
was  ever  a  man  alive  who  went  about 
his  ward  doing  good,  it  was  this  man.  I 
have  learned  of  some  who  served  for 
over  seventy  years,  and  many  who  have 
given  sixty  years  of  service  as  ward 
teachers.  I  cannot  help  feeling  that  they 
certainly  have  been  a  power  and  influ- 
ence for  good  among  the  people  of  the 
Church. 

Only  a  few  days  ago  in  a  stake  quar- 
terly conference  I  heard  a  young  man, 
who,  with  his  parents,  had  been  living 
in  the  mission  field,  say  that  he  had 
the  responsibility  of  visiting  three  fami- 
lies each  month.  He,  together  with  his 
companion,  in  order  to  make  these  visits 
was  required  to  travel  160  miles  in  one 
direction  from  the  place  they  lived  to 
visit  two  of  these  families  and  had  to  go 
130  miles  in  the  opposite  direction  to 
visit  the  other  family,  but  they  did  the 
visiting  every  month. 

I  learned  of  the  dedication  of  some 
others.  While  visiting  a  stake  in  the 
Northwest,  I  learned  that  there  are  com- 
munities which  become  isolated  from 
the  rest  of  the  world  during  the  winter 
months.  Here  some  of  our  members 
reside.  Ward  teachers  who  have  the 
responsibility  of  visiting  these  families 
have  been  so  eager  to  make  contact  with 
them  that  they  have  traveled  by  horse- 
back, Jeep,  and  even  used  a  tractor  to 
make  the  visit  to  be  sure  that  all  was 
well  and  to  learn  whether  or  not  they 
could  be  of  any  assistance.  Then  I 
realize  that  the  same  thing  exists  with 
the  great  Relief  Society  visiting  teachers' 
program.  They,  too,  go  into  the  homes 
of  members  every  month  with  probably 
140,000  teachers.  This  makes  280,000 
teachers  visiting  among  our  families,  and 
this  cannot  help  being  a  powerful  in- 
fluence for  good. 

I  heard  a  story  about  a  little  Primary 
child  who  came  from  a  home  where 
the  parents  were  inactive.  The  child 
faithfully  attended  Primary  and  appar- 
ently listened  carefully  to  each  lesson. 
One  night  as  the  family  gathered  around 
the  dinner  table  and  were  ready  to  par- 
take of  the  meal,  the  little  girl  suddenly 
said,  "I  can't  eat  tonight."  After  care- 
ful questioning  by  the  parents,  the 
little  girl  finally  said,  "Mother,  I  have 


learned  in  Primary  that  we  should  not 
eat  the  food  that  is  placed  before  us  until 
we  thank  our  Heavenly  Father  for  it." 
The  father  and  mother  looked  at  each 
other,  wondering  what  to  do,  and  the 
little  girl,  observing  the  anxiety  in  their 
eyes,  said,  "If  you  are  wondering  who 
can  do  this,  I  can."  The  little  girl  asked 
the  blessing  on  the  food;  her  appetite 
returned;  and  everything  seemed  all 
right  until  the  same  situation  occurred 
the  following  evening.  The  little  girl 
just  could  not  eat  her  dinner,  and  the 
mother,  remembering  the  experience  of 
the  night  before,  said  to  her,  "You  asked 
the  blessing  last  night,  ask  it  again 
tonight."  The  little  girl  said,  "Mother, 
I  can't  do  it.  I  learned  in  Primary  that 
there  are  some  things  the  Lord  does  not 
want  us  to  take  into  our  bodies,  and 
some  of  these  things  are  on  this  table." 
When  the  cups  of  coffee  and  the  coffee 
pot  had  been  removed  and  disposed  of, 
the  little  girl  asked  the  blessing  on  the 
food,  and  the  family  resumed  eating. 
"You  will  never  know  the  change  that 
came  over  our  home  through  the  teach- 
ing of  our  little  Primary  child,"  the 
mother  remarked. 

An  appreciative  wife  whose  husband 
was  a  very  inactive  man  in  the 
Church  related  the  following  experience: 
"Through  the  personal  missionary  pro- 
gram of  the  priesthood  quorum,  a  fine, 
active  man  was  assigned  to  contact  my 
husband  to  see  if  he  could  bring  him 
back  into  activity  in  the  Church.  This 
man  faithfully  telephoned  our  home 
every  Saturday  night,  telling  my  hus- 
band that  he  would  call  again  in  the 
morning  in  the  hope  that  he  would  be 
ready  to  go  to  priesthood  meeting  with 
him.  'It  would  be  a  pleasure  to  let  me 
come  and  take  you  to  meeting  with  me. 
You  just  don't  know  what  you  are  miss- 
ing,' he  said.  Each  time  for  twenty 
weeks,  my  husband  found  an  excuse,  not 
only  on  Saturday  evening  but  on  Sun- 
day morning;  but  on  the  twenty-first 
Sunday  morning,  my  husband  came  out 
of  his  bedroom  all  dressed  up.  Excitedly, 
I  said  to  him,  'My  heavens,  where  are 
you  going  this  morning?'  He  remarked 
that  in  a  few  moments  he  would  be 
getting  a  telephone  call.  'I  have  had 
them  for  twenty  weeks,  you  know,  and  I 
will  receive  one  again  in  a  few  moments. 
When  I  tell  this  man  that  I  am  all 


54 

Saturday,  October  10 

dressed  and  ready  to  go  to  priesthood 
meeting  with  him,  it  could  be  such  a 
shock  to  him  that  he  may  not  be  able 
to  come  and  get  me.' "  "Well,"  said  his 
wife,  "you  don't  miss  the  blessings  of 
the  priesthood  in  the  home  until  you 
realize  what  has  been  denied  you.  My 
husband  will  never  get  over  thanking 
this  man  for  calling  him  persistently 
until  finally  he  yielded.  What  it  has 
done  for  him  and  our  family  is  tre- 
mendous." 

I  have  learned  in  the  last  day  or  two 
of  many  of  the  great  services  our  serv- 
icemen are  lending  in  the  building  pro- 
gram of  the  Church.  As  you  know,  they 
are  assigned  to  military  camps  in  all 
parts  of  the  world.  In  many  of  these 
areas,  buildings  will  be  erected,  and 
servicemen  will  make  very  substantial 
contributions  to  those  buildings  in  cash 
and  in  time.  In  many  instances,  they 
will  not  be  able  to  use  these  buildings 
when  they  are  completed.  They  will 
have  been  transferred  to  another  area. 
I  learned  yesterday  of  a  man  who,  with 
his  family,  had  decided  to  take  a  vaca- 
tion. When  all  preparations  had  been 
made,  and  because  they  were  in  the 
midst  of  a  building  program  in  their 
ward,  he  said  to  his  family,  "Well,  let's 
just  buy  a  plane  ticket  for  mother  so 
she  can  go  and  visit  her  family,  and 
while  she  is  gone,  the  boys  and  I  will 
give  our  vacation  time  to  the  construc- 
tion of  our  chapel."  I  saw  that  chapel. 
I  saw  this  man  and  his  sons  working  on 
this  chapel.  I  shook  hands  with  each 
of  them.  I  caught  the  thrill  that  came 
to  them.  Probably  the  best  vacation 
this  man  will  ever  have  will  be  the  one 
he  gave  to  assist  in  building  one  of 
these  beautiful  chapels  in  the  Church. 

Many  stories  of  the  efficacy  of  our 
welfare  program  have  been  told,  and  I 
realize  I  must  not  take  too  much  time 
to  speak  about  these,  but  let  me  tell  you 
of  one  case  that  happened  recently.  A 
man  and  his  wife  came  to  our  office, 
the  man  bandaged  from  his  head  to 
his  feet,  to  pay  tribute  to  the  work  of 
the  welfare  program.  Fire  had  struck 
this  man's  home.  Two  of  his  children 
were  burned  to  death  in  the  fire;  two 
others  sustained  serious  burns;  and  he, 
too,  was  burned  practically  over  the 
entire  surface  of  his  body.  He  had  now 
recovered  sufficiently  to  leave  the  hospi- 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


Second  Day 

tal  and  was  so  overjoyed  when  he  saw 
what  the  brethren  of  his  ward  had  done 
to  rebuild  his  burned  home  that  he 
came  to  the  office  of  the  Presiding  Bish- 
opric just  to  thank  the  Church  for  the 
great  welfare  program.  We  were  about 
to  have  a  meeting  with  the  First  Presi- 
dency and  so  invited  this  man  and  his 
wife  to  go  downstairs  with  us  and  shake 
hands  with  these  brethren.  I  am  sure 
no  greater  thrill  will  ever  come  to  this 
couple  than  to  have  this  privilege,  and 
I  heard  this  man  say  to  the  First  Presi- 
dency, "I  do  not  think  I  could  have 
endured  that  which  has  happened  to  us 
had  it  not  been  for  the  warmth,  the  love, 
and  the  blessing  of  the  brethren  who 
came  to  my  rescue."  The  day  he  came 
to  our  office,  he  said,  "Fifteen  or  twenty 
masons  are  there  today  installing  my 
block  walls,  and  by  tonight  my  house 
will  be  up  to  the  square.  They  told  me 
that  tomorrow  that  many  carpenters 
will  be  there  to  place  the  rafters  on  the 
roof,  cover  them  with  sheathing,  and  I 
am  told  by  tomorrow  night,  it  will  be 
shingled,  all  this  done  in  one  day." 

There  are  many  instances  where 
farmers  through  illness  or  accidents  have 
not  been  able  to  plant  their  farms  in 
the  spring  and  harvest  their  crops  in 
the  fall,  but  their  farms  were  planted 
and  their  crops  were  harvested  because 
of  the  love  of  their  quorum  members. 

I  learned  of  individuals  who  sacrificed 
for  the  missionary  program.  Just  one 
or  two  expressions:  one  given  by  a  grand- 
mother who  was  on  her  way  to  the 
mission  field.  In  bearing  her  testimony 
the  last  night  the  missionaries  were  in 
town,  she  said,  "I  would  be  willing  to 
scrub  floors  the  rest  of  my  life  if  my 
twelve  grandsons  could  have  the  won- 
derful experience  of  going  on  a  mission." 
Could  you  ask  for  any  greater  dedica- 
tion than  this?  One  other  young  man 
said,  "My  mother  is  doing  janitor  work 
to  sustain  me  while  I  am  in  the  mission 
field." 

I  feel  there  are  many  people  in  the 
world  who  are  going  about  doing  good.  I 
wish  all  had  a  desire  to  do  good. 

I  want  to  thank  my  friend  for  these 
thoughts.  I  hope  my  friend  may  also 
be  your  friend.  My  friend  is  the  still 
small  voice.  He  and  I  have  had  an 
interesting  experience  on  many  occa- 


ELDER  ALMA  SONNE 


55 


sions  as  we  have  pondered  over  the  work 
of  the  Church. 

God  bless  you,  inspire  you,  and  help 
you  to  go  about  doing  good,  blessing 
our  people.  I  pray  for  this  and  bear  you 
my  testimony  in  the  name  of  Jesus 
Christ.  Amen. 


President  David  O.  McKay: 

He  to  whom  we  have  just  listened  is 
Bishop  Carl  W.  Buehner  of  the  Pre- 
siding Bishopric.  Our  concluding  speaker 
this  morning  will  be  Elder  Alma  Sonne, 
Assistant  to  the  Twelve. 


ELDER  ALMA  SONNE 

Assistant  to  the  Council  of  the  Twelve  Apostles 


My  brethren  and  sisters,  the  good  and 
fervent  prayer  offered  at  the  beginning 
of  this  session  by  President  Lewis  has 
been  answered  in  blessings  upon  our 
heads.  I  hope  the  good  Spirit  will  con- 
tinue with  us  throughout  this  service. 

I  am  very  happy,  and  I  was  delighted 
to  hear  that  President  Hunter  had  been 
called  to  fill  the  vacancy  in  the  Quorum 
of  the  Twelve.  President  Hunter  has 
been  for  many  years  a  leader  in  Zion. 
He  has  been  proved,  and  I  say  that  a 
Church  is  very  fortunate  indeed  that  can 
call  upon  men  of  his  caliber  to  serve 
freely  and  pleasantly  in  the  great  posi- 
tion which  he  now  occupies. 

I  was  also  very  happy  this  morning 
to  hear  the  vigor  and  the  strength  dem- 
onstrated by  President  Clark  in  his 
sermon  to  us.  The  Lord  has  blessed 
him,  and  I  am  sure  you  join  with  me  in 
expressing  gratitude  for  his  recovery, 
that  his  leadership  may  continue 
amongst  us. 

Yesterday,  I  was  thrilled  and  greatly 
uplifted  by  that  masterful  sermon  de- 
livered by  President  McKay  on  the 
character,  the  teachings,  and  the  life  of 
Jesus  Christ,  the  Lord.  I  was  also 
pleased  with  his  references  to  the  Ser- 
mon on  the  Mount  delivered  by  the 
Savior  before  a  small  group  of  people 
gathered  on  the  mountainside.  That 
sermon  has  lived  for  centuries.  It  has 
survived  the  Dark  Ages.  It  has  survived 
the  Renaissance.  It  has  survived  mod- 
ern speculations  and  the  conflicts  and 
the  contention  among  nations. 

That  sermon  will  live  forever.  There 
is  nothing  more  fundamental  in  God's 
word  than  the  sermon  which  the  Savior 
gave  and  which  is  called  the  Sermon  on 
the  Mount. 

A  few  years  ago  I  attended  a  Sacra- 
ment meeting  in  the  South  London 
Branch  in  London.   The  occasion  was 


a  Christmas  program.  On  that  program 
appeared  a  Jewish  musician.  He  played 
a  selection  on  the  cello.  It  was  very 
good.  The  presiding  officer  tried  to  get 
him  to  play  another  selection,  but  he 
refused.  He  said,  however,  "I  will  sing 
a  solo,  if  that  will  be  acceptable."  He 
stepped  forward,  and  he  sang  the  song 
we  all  love,  "The  Lord's  Prayer,"  after 
which  he  took  his  seat  in  the  audience. 

When  the  meeting  was  over,  he 
walked  up  to  me  and  said,  and  these 
are  his  words,  "You  will  have  to  get 
something  more  practical  than  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount  if  you  expect  to 
convert  the  Jews." 

I  said  to  him,  "Have  you  ever  read 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount?" 

He  said,  "I  must  have  read  it." 

"I  hope  you  have,"  I  suggested,  "before 
you  criticize  it."  And  then  I  said  to 
him,  "You  sang  a  wonderful  song  to- 
night, 'The  Lord's  Prayer.'  Did  it  ever 
occur  to  you  that  that  prayer  was  a  part 
of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount?"  He  did 
not  seem  to  realize  it. 

"Now,"  I  said,  "Will  you  tell  me  one 
single  teaching  in  that  sermon  which  is 
not  practical.  Name  one  thing  in  it 
that  cannot  be  practised  and  intro- 
duced into  your  daily  life."  He  was 
silent. 

Then  I  began  to  repeat  for  him  that 
wonderful  prayer  offered  by  Jesus  as  an 
example  to  his  disciples.  "  "Thy  kingdom 
come.  Thy  will  be  done  in  earth,  as 
it  is  in  heaven.'  (Matt.  6-7.)  Isn't  that 
a  practical  aspiration  to  have?"  I  said. 

He  made  no  reply. 

Then  I  repeated  this:  "'Give  us  this 
day  our  daily  bread.'  Surely,  that  is 
practical  to  a  man  like  you." 

And  he  said,  "Oh,  it  is  very  practical." 

I  continued,  "  'And  forgive  us  our 
debts,  as  we  forgive  our  debtors.'  We 
are  having  a  lot  of  trouble  with  debts 


56  GENERAL  C 

Saturday,  October  10 

these  days,  individual  and  national. 
Don't  you  think  we  ought  to  pray  about 
it  once  in  a  while?"  I  asked. 

"It  wouldn't  be  amiss,"  he  replied. 

And  then  I  gave  him  this  statement: 
"  '.  . .  deliver  us  from  evil.'  Is  that  not  a 
prayerful  hope  that  all  of  us  should 
have?  It  refers  to  the  evil  that  appears 
in  our  pathways,  evil  that  frustrates  and 
stultifies  us  as  we  go  forth  in  our  daily 
affairs.  'Deliver  us  from  evil,'  is  a 
plea  for  strength  to  resist  temptation. 

I  called  his  attention  to  two  or  three 
other  statements  in  the  sermon:  "Judge 
not,  that  ye  be  not  judged. 

"For  with  what  judgment  ye  judge, 
ye  shall  be  judged:  and  with  what 
measure  ye  mete,  it  shall  be  measured  to 
you  again." 

At  last  he  was  impressed.  He  said, 
"Oh,  if  you  Christians  would  honor  that 
last  commandment,  'As  you  measure  out 
to  others,  it  shall  be  measured  back  to 
you.' " 

I  said,  "Not  only  the  Christians,  but 
the  Jews  as  well." 

Then  he  began  to  explain  if  that  com- 
mandment were  believed  today  we 
would  be  living  in  a  different  world. 
Fancy  someone  believing  a  teaching 
which  declares,  as  we  measure  out  to 
others,  it  will  be  measured  back  to  us. 
There  would  then  be  no  dishonesty  in 
the  world.  There  would  be  no  persecu- 
tion. There  would  be  no  war.  There 
would  be  no  bloodshed.  There  would 
be  no  contentions  in  our  civilized  so- 
ciety because  the  world  stands  on  one  of 
the  great  laws  taught  by  the  Lord 
Jesus. 

I  quoted  again  from  the  sermon: 
"  'Ask,  and  it  shall  be  given  you; 
seek,  and  ye  shall  find;  knock,  and  it 
shall  be  opened  unto  you.'  Can't  you 
see  the  practical  thing  in  that  teaching, 
my  brother?  If  we  desire  something, 
something  that  is  precious,  something  we 
need,  certainly  it  will  require  effort  on 
our  part." 

My  friend  left  me.  He  said,  "I  will 
go  home  and  read  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount." 

I  asked,  "You  have  a  New  Testa- 
ment?" 


Second  Day 

He  said,  "I  believe  I  have,  but  it  must 
be  covered  with  dust." 

And  now  it  occurs  to  me  that  when 
Joseph  Smith  penned  his  thirteen  Arti- 
cles of  Faith,  he  stated  in  the  fourth  one 
that  the  first  principle  of  the  gospel  is 
faith  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  There 
may  be  other  kinds  of  faith,  but  the 
faith  that  will  lead  us  on  to  eternal 
happiness  and  salvation  is  faith  in  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

May  we  be  true  to  that  sermon,  and 
may  we  acquit  ourselves  in  such  a  way 
that  we  may  be  worthy  of  an  exaltation 
in  God's  kingdom,  I  pray,  in  the  name 
of  Jesus  Christ.  Amen. 

President  David  O.  McKay: 

Elder  Alma  Sonne,  Assistant  to  the 
Twelve,  has  just  spoken  to  us. 

The  singing  for  this  session  has  been 
furnished  by  the  University  of  Utah 
Choral  Society — the  Institute  of  Religion 
and  the  University  of  Utah  Choruses 
and  the  Bonneville  Strings — David  A. 
Shand,  director.  We  wish  to  express 
appreciation  for  the  attendance  and  the 
inspirational  singing  rendered  by  this 
body  of  young  people.  Thank  you. 
You  have  inspired  us  not  only  by  your 
singing,  but  by  the  realization,  and  we 
treasure  the  thought,  that  your  lives 
conform  to  the  ideals  of  the  Gospel 
songs  that  you  are  rendering  so  im- 
pressively. We  are  happy  to  welcome 
you  back  this  afternoon.  We  thank 
you  for  your  inspiration  this  morning. 

They  will  close  by  singing,  "The  Vi- 
sion," and  the  benediction  will  be 
offered  by  Bishop  John  L.  Herrick, 
formerly  president  of  the  Western  States 
Mission,  after  which  this  Conference 
will  be  adjourned  until  two  o'clock.  We 
shall  now  be  favored  by  "The  Vision," 
by  the  Combined  Choruses. 


Singing  by  the  Combined  Choruses, 
"The  Vision"  by  Evan  Stephens. 

Elder  John  L.  Herrick,  formerly  presi- 
dent of  the  Western  States  Mission,  of- 
fered the  closing  prayer. 

Conference  adjourned  until  2  o'clock 
p.m. 


SECOND  DAY 
AFTERNOON  MEETING 


The  Conference  reconvened  at  2 
o'clock  p.m.,  Saturday,  October  10,  1959. 

The  singing  for  this  session  was  by 
the  University  of  Utah  Choral  Society 
(The  Institute  of  Religion  and  the  Uni- 
versity of  Utah  Choruses  and  the  Bonne- 
ville Strings),  David  A.  Shand  directing, 
and  Alexander  Schreiner  at  the  organ. 

President  David  O.  McKay,  who  was 
presiding  and  conducting,  made  the 
following  introductory  remarks: 

President  David  O.  McKay: 

For  the  information  of  those  who  are 
listening  in  over  radio,  or  looking  at 
television,  we  are  pleased  to  announce 
that  we  are  assembled  in  the  great  Tab- 
ernacle in  Salt  Lake  City  on  Temple 
Square  in  the  fourth  session  of  the  One 
Hundred  Twenty-Ninth  Semi-Annual 
Conference  of  the  Church.  For  those 
who  cannot  find  seats — there  are  some 
standing  in  the  doorways — we  announce 
that  overflow  meetings  are  being  held 
in  the  Assembly  Hall  and  in  the  Barratt 
Hall,  and  these  services  will  be  broad- 
cast at  both  those  places. 

The  singing  for  this  afternoon's  ses- 
sion will  be  furnished  by  the  University 
of  Utah  Choral  Society — the  Institute 
of  Religion  and  the  University  of  Utah 
Choruses,  and  the  Bonneville  Strings — 
conducted  by  Professor  David  A.  Shand, 
with  Alexander  Schreiner  at  the  organ. 


We  shall  begin  these  services  by  the 
Combined  Choruses  singing,  "Though 
Deepening  Trials."  The  opening  prayer 
will  be  offered  by  Elder  Edgar  L.  Wag- 
ner, formerly  president  of  the  Central 
American  Mission. 


The  Combined  Choruses  sang  the 
hymn,  "Though  Deepening  Trials." 

Elder  Edgar  LeRoy  Wagner,  formerly 
president  of  the  Central  American  Mis- 
sion, offered  the  invocation. 

President  David  O.  McKay: 

The  invocation  was  offered  by  Elder 
Edgar  L.  Wagner,  formerly  president  of 
the  Central  American  Mission.  The 
University  of  Utah  Choral  Society  will 
now  favor  us  with,  "He  Watching  Over 
Israel,"  conducted  by  Professor  David 
Shand.  After  the  singing  Elder  Spencer 
W.  Kimball  will  speak  to  us. 


Singing  by  the  Combined  Choruses, 
"He  Watching  Over  Israel." 

President  David  O.  McKay: 

Elder  Spencer  W.  Kimball  of  the 
Council  of  the  Twelve  will  be  our  first 
speaker.  He  will  be  followed  by  Patri- 
arch Eldred  G.  Smith. 


ELDER  SPENCER  W.  KIMBALL 

Of  the  Council  of  the  Twelve  Apostles 


My  beloved  brothers  and  sisters,  it 
is  a  delight  to  welcome  into  our  circle 
our  new  member,  Brother  Hunter.  He 
has  our  admiration  and  our  affection. 

In  the  few  moments  at  my  disposal 
I  should  like  to  address  my  remarks  to 
you,  our  kinsmen  of  the  isles  of  the  sea 
and  the  Americas.  Millions  of  you  have 
blood  relatively  unmixed  with  Gentile 
nations.  Columbus  called  you  "In- 
dians," thinking  he  had  reached  the 
East  Indies.  Millions  of  you  are  de- 
scendants of  Spaniards  and  Indians,  and 


are  termed  "mestizos,"  and  are  called 
after  your  countries,  for  instance:  Mexi- 
cans in  Mexico;  Guatemalans  in  Guate- 
mala; Chilianos  in  Chile. 

You  Polynesians  of  the  Pacific  are 
called  Samoan  or  Maori,  Tahitian  or 
Hawaiian,  according  to  your  islands. 
There  are  probably  sixty  million  of  you 
on  the  two  continents  and  on  the  Pacific 
Islands,  all  related  by  blood  ties. 

The  Lord  calls  you  "Lamanites,"  a 
name  which  has  a  pleasant  ring,  for 
many  of  the  grandest  people  ever  to  live 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


58 

Saturday,  October  10 

upon  the  earth  were  so  called.  In  a 
limited  sense,  the  name  signifies  the 
descendants  of  Laman  and  Lemuel,  sons 
of  your  first  American  parent,  Lehi;  but 
you  undoubtedly  possess  also  the  blood 
of  the  other  sons,  Sam,  Nephi,  and  Jacob. 
And  you  likely  have  some  Jewish  blood 
from  Mulek,  son  of  Zedekiah,  king  of 
Judah.  The  name  "Lamanite"  dis- 
tinguishes you  from  other  peoples.  It 
is  not  a  name  of  derision  or  embarrass- 
ment, but  one  of  which  to  be  very  proud. 

You  came  from  Jerusalem  in  its  days 
of  tribulation.  You  are  of  royal  blood, 
a  loved  people  of  the  Lord.  In  your 
veins  flows  the  blood  of  prophets  and 
statesmen;  of  emperors  and  kings;  apos- 
tles and  martyrs.  Adam  and  Enoch 
sired  you;  Noah  brought  you  through 
the  flood;  in  the  sandals  of  Abraham 
you  walked  from  Ur  of  the  Chaldees  to 
your  first  "promised  land";  you  climbed 
in  faith  with  Isaac  to  the  holy  mount 
of  sacrifice;  and  you  followed  the  path 
of  hunger  to  Egypt  with  your  father 
Jacob,  and  with  Joseph  you  established, 
under  the  Pharaohs,  the  first  great 
known  welfare  project. 

You  are  the  children  of  Ephraim  and 
Manasseh,  Joseph's  sons  and  of  Judah, 
his  brother.  Your  fathers  crossed  the 
Jordan  River  with  Joshua,  and  after 
centuries'  absence  you  were  again  in 
your  first  "promised  land." 

The  Genoese  Italian  boy,  with  his 
three  ships  from  Spain,  thought  he  had 
discovered  a  new  world,  but  he  was 
thousands  of  years  late.  Your  people 
were  on  the  shores  to  welcome  Columbus 
and  his  men.  Cortez,  Pizarro,  and  their 
contemporaries,  conquerors,  exploiters 
found  your  "old  people"  already  de- 
cadent intellectually,  culturally,  and 
spiritually,  but  populous  in  your  wealth 
and  poverty.  Norwegian  Vikings  are 
said  to  have  discovered  this  land  before 
Columbus,  but  your  people  were  already 
scattered  from  the  Arctic  to  the  Antarctic 
before  there  was  a  Norway  or  Vikings. 

When  your  prophet  Lehi  led  you  out 
of  Jerusalem  about  600  years  B.  C,  you 
brought  with  you  the  best  of  the  culture 
of  Egypt  and  Palestine  and  of  the  then 
known  world;  also  the  written  language 
of  your  fathers  and  the  holy  scriptures 
from  Adam  down  to  your  own  time, 
these  engraved  upon  brass  plates.  You 
brought  with  you  an  absolute  knowledge 
of  the  God  of  Abraham,  Isaac,  and 


Second  Day 

Jacob,  and  maintained  for  a  long  time 
thereafter  open  vision  and  clear,  un- 
obstructed lines  of  communication  with 
your  Lord. 

In  the  new  "promised  land"  the  seeds 
you  brought  from  Palestine  multiplied 
and  brought  to  you  great  prosperity  on 
the  extensive  lands  you  farmed.  In 
your  explorations  you  found  gold,  silver, 
copper,  and  iron,  and  processed  brass 
and  steel.  Your  factories  turned  out 
machinery  and  tools  for  agriculture, 
architecture,  and  road  building.  And 
with  those  tools  you  builded  cities,  such 
as  you  knew  in  Egypt  and  Palestine, 
highways  which  would  carry  your  traf- 
fic, and  temples  after  the  order  of  the 
world-famed  Solomon's  Temple. 

Your  culture  was  beyond  the  imagina- 
tion of  moderns.  In  your  prosperity 
you  wore  "silks,  scarlets,  fine-twined 
linen,  and  precious  clothing."  You  be- 
jeweled  yourselves  with  ornaments  of 
gold  and  silver  and  other  metals,  and 
with  precious  stones.  You  were  fabu- 
lously wealthy  in  your  day. 

In  the  long  years  of  prosperity  and 
righteousness,  your  wealth  graced  tem- 
ples and  synagogues.  You  read,  quoted, 
and  lived  by  the  teachings  of  the  books 
of  Moses  and  the  inspired  writings  of 
the  prophets.  Your  people  knew  faith 
such  as  has  seldom  been  found  upon 
the  earth.  There  were  years  of  conflict 
and  wickedness,  but  also  years  of  peace 
and  unparalleled  goodness. 

You  produced  prophets  of  stature. 
There  were  your  Lehis,  Nephis,  and 
Jacobs;  your  Almas,  Abinadis,  and  Mor- 
mons. Your  Lamanite  prophet,  Samuel, 
who  prophesied  of  the  Christ,  had  few 
peers  and  perhaps  no  superiors.  Your 
scientists  and  teachers  and  engineers 
were  able  and  efficient,  and  left  notable 
monuments. 

Then  was  the  transcendently  im- 
portant coming  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
to  you.  Many  of  you  retain  this  experi- 
ence in  your  traditions.  Your  people 
gathered  about  their  temple  en  masse 
to  hear  the  words  of  life  from  the  lips 
of  their  Redeemer,  who  had  so  recently 
experienced  death,  resurrection,  and 
ascension  in  the  Holy  Land,  as  re- 
corded in  the  New  Testament.  As  they 
sat  with  bated  breath  and  eyes  uplifted, 
he  came  to  them  from  the  clouds  of 
heaven  as  he  had  so  recently  left  his 
Saints  in  Judaea.    As  they  looked  into 


ELDER  SPENCER  W.  KIMBALL 


59 


his  kindly  eyes  and  wondered  about  his 
wounds,  he  told  them  of  his  birth  and 
life  and  ministry.  He  repeated  to  them 
the  vital  and  priceless  sermons  on  the 
mount,  on  the  Sea  of  Galilee,  in  Sa- 
maria, in  Jerusalem.  He  taught  them 
the  power  of  faith,  of  the  battle  between 
truth  and  evil.  He  told  them  of  the 
voice  of  God,  his  Father,  at  the  time 
of  his  baptism,  and  of  the  special  en- 
dowments to  Peter,  James,  and  John 
on  the  Holy  Mount  of  Transfiguration, 
when  they  also  heard  the  voice  of  God, 
the  Father.  Now  Nephite-Lamanite 
ears  were  to  hear  the  same  voice  of  the 
same  God,  introducing  the  same  Jesus 
Christ  to  them:  "Behold  my  Beloved 
Son."  (3  Nephi  11:7.) 

He  told  them  of  his  Church  in  Jeru- 
salem, and  displayed  to  them  his  hands, 
his  feet,  his  side,  torn  by  nails  and 
spear  at  the  hands  of  his  own.  He 
healed  their  sick,  their  lame,  their 
blind,  as  he  had  in  the  Holy  Land,  and 
blessed  their  little  children  around 
whom  fire  came  down  from  heaven  to 
glorify.  He  called  his  twelve  disciples 
and  set  them  apart  to  carry  on  his 
Church,  then  ascended  into  heaven 
again. 

Your  Lamanite  ancestors  were  not 
more  rebellious  than  their  Israelitish 
forebears,  but  their  way  of  life  guaran- 
teed eventual  decimation.  You  had 
a  rugged  history  with  many  tribulations, 
but  you  have  a  brilliant  future.  You 
are  a  chosen  people;  your  destiny  is  in 
your  own  hands,  your  friends',  and  the 
Lord's.  You  were  scattered  in  the  great 
dispersion  six  centuries  before  Christ, 
and  again  on  this  continent  in  the  pre- 
and  post-Christian  eras,  and  your  more 
complete  dispersion  came  since  Colum- 
bus, and  the  explorers  and  the  colonists. 

Someone  has  said  that  "the  darkest 
hour  is  just  before  the  dawn,"  and  your 
shades  of  night  are  giving  way  to  the 
dawn  of  a  brighter  day.  Yesterday  you 
roamed  the  wilderness  in  feast  or  famine; 
today  you  are  finding  security  in  educa- 
tion and  industry;  and  tomorrow  your 
destiny  will  be  brilliant  in  self-suffi- 
ciency, faith,  fearlessness,  and  power. 
Like  the  Israelites  released  from  Egyp- 
tian bondage,  you  have  been  promised 
deliverance  from  your  foes  of  super- 
stition, fear,  illiteracy,  and  from  the 
curses  of  want  and  disease  and  suffer- 
ing. 


Yesterday  you  traveled  uncharted 
oceans,  wandered  over  trackless  deserts, 
lost  your  high  culture,  your  written 
tongue,  and  your  knowledge  of  the  true 
and  Living  God.  Today  you  are  arising 
from  your  long  sleep  and  are  stretching, 
yawning,  and  reaching.  Tomorrow  you 
will  be  highly  trained,  laying  out  high- 
ways, constructing  bridges,  developing 
cities,  building  temples,  and  joining  in 
inspired  leadership  of  the  Church  of 
your  Redeemer. 

Historians  have  written  about  your 
past;  poets  have  sung  of  your  possibili- 
ties; prophets  have  predicted  your  scat- 
tering and  your  gathering;  and  your 
Lord  has  permitted  you  to  walk  through 
the  dark  chasms  of  your  ancestors'  mak- 
ing, but  has  patiently  waited  for  your 
awakening,  and  now  smiles  on  your  flo- 
rescence, and  points  the  way  to  your 
glorious  future  as  sons  and  daughters 
of  God.  You  will  arise  from  your  bed 
of  affliction  and  from  your  condition  of 
deprivation  if  you  will  accept  fully  the 
Lord,  Jesus  Christ,  and  his  total  pro- 
gram. You  will  rise  to  former  heights 
in  culture  and  education,  influence  and 
power.  You  will  blossom  as  the  rose 
upon  the  mountains.  Your  daughters 
will  be  nurses,  teachers,  and  social 
workers,  and,  above  all,  beloved  wives 
and  full-of-faith  mothers  of  a  righteous 
posterity. 

Your  sons  will  compete  in  art,  litera- 
ture, and  medicine,  in  law,  architecture, 
etc.  They  will  become  professional,  in- 
dustrial, and  business  leaders,  and 
statesmen  of  the  first  order.  Together 
you  and  we  shall  build  in  the  spectacu- 
lar city  of  New  Jerusalem  the  temple 
to  which  our  Redeemer  will  come. 
Your  hands  with  ours,  also  those  of 
Jacob,  will  place  the  foundation  stones, 
raise  the  walls,  and  roof  the  magnifi- 
cent structure.  Perhaps  your  artistic 
hands  will  paint  the  temple  and 
decorate  it  with  a  master's  touch,  and 
together  we  shall  dedicate  to  our  Cre- 
ator Lord  the  most  beautiful  of  all 
temples  ever  built  to  his  name. 

Sad  have  been  your  experiences  of 
the  last  sixteen  centuries.  From  the  un- 
excelled righteousness  of  the  post-Chris- 
tian era,  your  ancestors  slipped  into  an 
apostasy  which  has  brought  centuries 
of  suffering  and  distress  to  their  pos- 
terity. Fabulously  wealthy,  they  forgot 
their  God.    They  divided  into  tribes 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


60 

Saturday,  October  10 

and  clans  and  went  to  war  with  each 
other,  driving  and  plundering,  till  the 
continent  was  a  pulsating  war  camp. 

You  had  great  warriors  like  Am- 
moron,  Helaman,  and  Mormon,  who  in 
cunning  strategy  and  leadership  rivaled 
the  Cyruses,  Alexanders,  and  Caesars. 
Your  downfall  came  when  your  people 
walked  the  way  to  war.  Revenge  and 
hatreds  made  cold  wars  flame  into  hot 
shooting  ones.  Baptismal  waters  be- 
came rivers  of  blood.  The  parched 
earth  policy  was  followed,  and  enemy 
armies  surged  back  and  forth  across  the 
land,  tramping  down  crops,  squandering 
livestock,  and  changing  a  stable  people 
into  nomads. 

When  armies  march  and  people  fight, 
education  suffers,  art  languishes,  build- 
ings crumble,  forests  are  exploited, 
farms  return  to  desert,  and  orchards 
to  jungle.  Fighting  men  build  tempo- 
rary bridges,  forts,  and  towers  instead  of 
homes,  public  buildings,  and  observa- 
tories. There  is  neither  time  nor 
inclination  to  carve  statues,  paint  land- 
scapes, compose  music,  or  record  his- 
tory. Communities  on  the  march  or  in 
retreat  have  no  schools  nor  teachers. 
Priceless  records  are  destroyed  with  the 
buildings  and  cities  which  are  burned 
and  pillaged.  Artists,  scholars,  writers, 
and  clergy  alike  shoulder  arms,  stalking 
enemies,  and  laying  siege  to  cities. 
Plunder  replaces  honest  industry.  Cat- 
tle, goats,  and  poultry  are  devoured  by 
voracious  soldiers.  Calves,  kids,  and 
piglets  are  eaten  as  are  the  seed-corn, 
and  the  wheat.  Fruit  is  devoured,  and 
trees  are  burned  for  wood.  Today's  in- 
satiable hunger  swallows  tomorrow's 
plenty.  Armies  carry  movable  tents  and 
abandon  homes  and  churches.  Temples 
fall  in  ruins  and  are  overgrown  by 
vegetation.  With  ever-decreasing  flocks 
to  shear,  no  weaving  or  knitting  is  done, 
and  clothes  are  replaced  with  short 
skin  girdles,  and  heads  are  shaven. 
Plowshares  are  turned  into  swords, 
and  pruning  hooks  into  spears.  The 
manufacture  of  farm  implements  is 
turned  to  the  making  of  the  scimitar, 
the  ax,  and  the  sword.  Life  becomes  a 
sordid  existence,  bloody,  with  little  pur- 
pose except  to  survive. 

Mormon  said:  ".  .  .  they  are  led  about 
by  Satan,  even  as  chaff  is  driven  before 
the  wind,  or  as  a  vessel  is  tossed  about 
upon  the  waves,  without  sail  or  anchor, 


Second  Day 

or  without  anything  wherewith  to  steer 
her.  .  .  ."  (Mormon  5:18.) 

In  all  this  prolonged  period  of  war 
and  drivings,  your  immediate  ancestors 
lost  their  written  language,  their  high 
culture,  and  worst  of  all  their  knowl- 
edge of  God  and  his  work.  Faith  was 
replaced  by  fear,  language  by  dialects, 
history  by  tradition,  and  a  knowledge 
and  understanding  of  God  and  his  ways 
by  idolatry,  even  to  human  sacrifice. 
Your  priceless  thousand  years  of  history, 
laboriously  engraved  on  plates  of  metal, 
and  the  brass  plates  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, were  hidden  by  your  inspired 
prophet-historian  in  the  sacred  hill  in 
a  stone  box,  to  remain  undisturbed  until 
a  wise  Heavenly  Father  should  bring 
them  forth  for  you,  their  resting  place 
known  only  in  heaven. 

In  the  business  of  killing  human 
beings,  there  could  be  little  inclination 
to  face  a  Creator  and  a  gospel  of  peace; 
the  many-times  restored  gospel  of  Jesus 
Christ  was  lost;  and  spiritual  darkness 
enveloped  the  whole  world. 

When  Columbus  came,  your  tribes 
had  covered  the  islands  of  the  Pacific, 
and  the  Americas  from  Tierra  del  Fuego 
to  Point  Barrow.  Every  school  child 
is  familiar  with  that  period  of  history 
when  your  more  recent  ancestors  were 
pushed  from  the  Appalachians  to  the 
Sierras,  from  the  Atlantic  to  the 
Pacific.  All  know  about  the  four  hun- 
dred year  "battle  of  America,"  wherein 
a  disunited  multitude  of  small  Indian 
tribal  nations  retreated  constantly  with 
much  bloodshed  to  far  corners,  and 
then  on  reservations  in  areas  unwanted. 

In  all  this  distress  your  greatest 
miracle  was  aborning.  When  you  were 
decimated  by  war  and  disease  and  all 
seemed  lost,  and  you  were  spoken  of 
as  "the  vanishing  American,"  then  hope 
discovered  a  star.  The  colonist,  the 
Gentiles,  took  your  lands,  your  streams, 
your  forests,  but  brought  something  to 
you  immeasurably  more  valuable — the 
Holy  Bible  with  its  glorious  truths,  and 
a  written  language  and  progressive 
schools,  scientific  development,  and 
intellectual  progress. 

Centuries  earlier  your  prophets  saw  in 
vision  and  foretold  the  coming  of 
Columbus  and  the  colonists,  of  the 
Revolutionary  War,  of  the  creation  of 
the  great  Gentile  nation  of  the  United 
States  of  America;  of  your  scattering, 


ELDER  SPENCER  W.  KIMBALL 


61 


and,  above  all,  and  most  important  to 
you  now,  of  the  gathering  of  your  people 
and  their  restoration.  Prophecies  ema- 
nating from  our  Lord  never  fail,  and  the 
oft-predicted  miracle  of  the  "marvelous 
work  and  a  wonder"  was  soon  at  hand. 
The  war  brought  independence  to  the 
struggling  colonies,  and  a  mighty  nation 
was  born  with  a  divinely  inspired  Con- 
stitution, granting  to  its  people  religious 
freedom.  Early  in  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury preparations  were  complete  for  the 
marvelous  miracle.  The  long-sealed 
heavens  opened.  God,  the  Father,  came 
down  with  Jesus  Christ,  whom  he  intro- 
duced to  a  young  modern  prophet, 
Joseph  Smith,  saying:  "This  is  my  Be- 
loved Son."  (P.  of  G.  P.,  Joseph  Smith 
2:17.) 

Your  Redeemer,  who  ascended  in  the 
clouds  in  the  Holy  Land  eighteen  cen- 
turies earlier,  and  who  had  soon  there- 
after visited  your  ancestors  on  this 
continent,  was  now  back  upon  the  earth 
for  a  stay  long  enough  to  open  a  new 
dispensation,  and  charge  his  new  proph- 
et with  responsibility,  and  to  introduce 
the  successive  events  which  were  to  be 
world-shaking.  His  visit  was  brief  but 
momentous.  The  gospel  was  returning. 
The  wondrous  work  continued.  Your 
priceless  records,  having  lain  in  a  vault 
for  centuries,  were  revealed,  Moroni, 
fourteen  centuries  dead  but  now  resur- 
rected, led  the  Prophet  to  the  place.  He 
removed  the  soil,  took  from  the  stone 
box  the  golden  plates,  and  blessed  with 
supernatural  power  gave  to  you  and  to 
your  contemporaries  the  English  trans- 
lation of  the  miracle  book  written  for 
you,  preserved  for  you,  and  dedicated 
to  you. 

For  you  there  were  prayers  of  numer- 
ous prophets,  including  Nephi:  "For  I 
pray  continually  for  them  by  day,  and 
mine  eyes  water  my  pillow  by  night." 
(2  Nephi  33:3.) 

Enos  said: 

"...  I  prayed  unto  him  with  many 
long  strugglings  for  my  brethren  the 
Lamanites  .  .  .  [and]  that  the  Lord 
God  would  preserve  a  record  of  my 
people  .  .  .  that  it  might  be  brought 
forth  at  some  future  day  unto  the 
Lamanites,  that,  perhaps,  they  might 
be  brought  unto  salvation." 

"And  I  had  faith,  and  I  did  cry  unto 
God  that  he  would  preserve  the  records; 
and  he  covenanted  with  me  that  he 


would  bring  them  forth  unto  the 
Lamanites  in  his  own  due  time."  (Enos 
11,  13,  16.) 

Many  moderns,  lay  and  trained,  have 
speculated  on  the  origin  of  the  early 
Americans.  Your  history  sets  at  rest 
that  question.  Many  people  have  ques- 
tioned the  divinity  of  the  Holy  Bible. 
Your  record  establishes  it  as  the  Word 
of  God.  Many  have  denied  that  Jesus 
was  the  very  Son  of  God.  Your  record 
leaves  no  doubt.  With  its  companion 
scripture,  the  Bible,  there  is  proof  for 
every  honest  soul  that  God  lives,  that 
Jesus  Christ  who  was  begotten  by  him  is 
the  Redeemer,  the  Savior.  It  establishes 
the  truth  of  the  exalting  gospel  which 
now  came  rapidly  from  the  throne  of 
God  to  the  Prophet,  to  you  and  to  us. 
Missionaries  are  now  teaching  the  true 
gospel  to  you  and  your  children.  You 
heard  today  of  the  organization  of  the 
first  Lamanite  mission  in  the  southern 
hemisphere — the  Andes  Mission. 

Your  record,  the  Book  of  Mormon, 
named  after  one  of  its  chief  historians, 
makes  clearer  the  numerous  predictions 
of  the  Bible.  Other  plates  will  have  their 
seals  broken,  and  additional  truths  will 
be  revealed.  It  tells  of  your  brethren, 
the  Ten  Tribes  of  Israel,  who  disap- 
peared from  Babylon  into  north  coun- 
tries when  your  people  headed  west  to 
this  world.  They  will  return  with  their 
prophets,  and  their  sacred  records  will 
be  a  third  witness  for  Christ.  They, 
the  Ten  Tribes,  you,  the  Lamanites,  and 
the  believing  of  us,  also  carrying  the 
blood  of  Israel,  will  jointly  build  the 
city  to  our  God,  the  New  Jerusalem,  with 
its  magnificent  temple.  The  end  of 
time  will  come;  the  millennium  will  be 
ushered  in;  the  Lord,  Jesus  Christ,  will 
return  to  lead  his  people;  and  the  earth 
will  be  renewed  and  receive  its  para- 
disiacal glory. 

My  Lamanite  brothers  and  sisters, 
we  love  you.  Our  bringing  the  gospel 
to  you  is  "likened  unto  their  being 
nourished  by  the  gentiles  and  being 
carried  in  their  arms  and  upon  their 
shoulders.  ..."  (1  Nephi  22:8.)  Your 
God  has  performed  many  miracles  to 
get  the  story  written  by  his  prophets, 
to  preserve  the  records  against  threats 
of  enemies  and  the  ravages  of  nature, 
and  to  get  them  translated  into  a  lan- 
guage you  can  understand,  and  bring  to 
you  this  second  witness  of  Christ.  Your 


62 

Saturday,  October  10 

Book  of  Mormon  record  is  as  a  voice 
from  the  dust,  messages  from  the  dead, 
warnings  from  the  Lord: 

"Return  unto  me  and  I  will  return 
unto  you,  saith  the  Lord  of  hosts."  (3 
Nephi  24:7.) 

Our  Lord  cries,  "Wo  unto  him  that 
spurneth  at  the  doings  of  the  Lord;  yea, 
wo  unto  him  that  shall  deny  the  Christ 
and  his  works!"  (Ibid.,  29:5.) 

You  have  been  preserved  to  this 
epochal  day,  and  the  gospel  is  available 
to  you  now.  Wash  your  souls  in  the 
blood  of  the  Lamb.  Cleanse  your  lives, 
study  the  scriptures,  accept  the  gospel 
and  ordinances. 

These  predictions  can  be  fulfilled  and 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


Second  Day 

come  to  you  through  one  channel  only, 
the  path  of  righteousness  and  faith; 
else  all  these  promises  are  but  empty, 
unfulfilled  dreams. 

May  God  bless  you  that  you  may  ac- 
cept the  truths  now  revealed  to  you,  I 
pray  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ.  Amen. 

President  David  O.  McKay: 

He  to  whom  you  have  just  listened 
is  Elder  Spencer  W.  Kimball  of  the 
Council  of  the  Twelve.  Our  next 
speaker  will  be  Elder  Eldred  G.  Smith, 
Patriarch  to  the  Church.  He  will  be 
followed  by  Bishop  Joseph  L.  Wirthlin. 


ELDER  ELDRED  G.  SMITH 

Patriarch  to  the  Church 


My  brothers  and  sisters,  I  pray  that  the 
Spirit  of  the  Lord  will  be  with  me  to 
give  me  utterance  of  the  thoughts  that 
I  have  in  mind  to  give  in  this  confer- 
ence. It  is  a  privilege,  that  I  enjoy  very 
much,  to  meet  with  many  of  the  new 
converts  of  the  Church,  for  many  who 
come  to  me  to  receive  blessings  are  the 
results  of  our  missionary  work,  and  I 
want  to  express  praise  and  commenda- 
tion to  the  missionary  work  in  the 
Church  because  I  see  the  results  of  it. 
They  are  good,  and  I  think  it  is  prob- 
ably the  cream  of  the  crop  that  come 
to  me. 

I  enjoy  very  much  hearing  their  stories 
of  how  they  have  become  members  of 
the  Church,  the  processes  they  have 
gone  through  in  overcoming  difficulties 
and  in  receiving  a  testimony  of  the 
divinity  of  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ. 
Many  tell  miraculous  experiences — ex- 
periences of  miraculous  healing,  exped- 
iences of  divine  guidance,  experiences  of 
assistance  to  accomplish  what  otherwise 
would  be  impossible — and  the  Lord  has 
said  to  us  that  "signs  shall  follow  them 
that  believe." 

I  would  like  to  emphasize  the  word 
follow  just  a  little  bit.  He  did  not  say 
they  would  precede  and  be  a  guide  and 
a  testimony  to  us  to  prove  in  advance 
that  this  is  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ. 
He  said  that  the  signs  shall  "follow" 
those  that  believe,  and  I  find  this  to  be 
the  case  in  the  stories  that  I  hear. 


The  Lord  has  also  warned  us,  saying, 
"For  there  shall  arise  false  Christs,  and 
false  prophets,  and  shall  shew  great 
signs  and  wonders;  insomuch  that,  if  it 
were  possible,  they  shall  deceive  the 
very  elect."  (Matthew  24:24.) 

Also,  in  referring  to  the  day  of  the 
judgment,  he  said,  "Many  will  say  to 
me  in  that  day,  Lord,  Lord,  have  we 
not  prophesied  in  thy  name?  and  in  thy 
name  have  cast  out  devils?  and  in  thy 
name  done  many  wonderful  works? 

"And  then  will  I  profess  unto  them, 
I  never  knew  you:  depart  from  me,  ye 
that  work  iniquity."  (Ibid.,  7:22-23.) 

Those  who  have  told  these  experi- 
ences, even  miraculous  experiences,  testi- 
fy to  me  that  it  is  not  the  experiences 
alone  that  give  them  a  testimony  of  the 
divinity  of  the  gospel.  True,  they 
strengthen  their  testimony;  true,  they 
are  experiences  that  make  them  think, 
cause  them  to  investigate  the  Church, 
but  they  alone  are  not  the  things  that 
give  them  a  testimony  of  the  gospel. 

For  instance,  just  recently  a  woman 
told  me  of  her  experience.  She  became 
very  ill.  It  had  been  determined  that 
she  had  cancer.  She  had  gone  through 
surgery  on  numerous  occasions,  until 
she  had  come  to  a  point  where  the  doc- 
tors had  given  her  up  and  told  her  that 
she  did  not  have  months  to  live,  but 
only  weeks.  There  was  no  hope  for 
her.  She  was  living  at  home  with  a 
nurse  to  take  care  of  her.   A  neighbor 


ELDER  ELDRED  G.  SMITH 


63 


called  one  day.  She  had  a  phone  near 
her  bed  so  she  could  answer  it,  and  the 
neighbor  said  to  her,  "Now  when  the 
doorbell  rings,  don't  answer  it.  It  is 
just  those  Mormon  missionaries  coming 
down  the  street;  so  when  the  doorbell 
rings,  just  don't  answer  it.  Don't  pay 
any  attention  to  it." 

So  the  woman  thanked  her  for  her 
consideration,  her  kindness.  She  told 
her  nurse  that  when  the  doorbell  rang 
she  was  not  to  answer  it;  it  was  just 
those  Mormon  missionaries  and  to  pay 
no  attention  to  them.  Well,  the  door- 
bell rang  after  a  few  minutes,  and  the 
nurse,  from  force  of  habit,  opened  the 
door,  then  realized  that  she  had  been 
told  not  to.  She  quickly  disposed  of  the 
missionaries.  Immediately  after,  the 
nurse  left  the  house  to  get  some  groceries. 
There  came  a  knock  on  the  door.  For 
some  reason  or  other  the  missionaries 
had  returned.  They  knocked  and  got 
no  answer,  so  they  opened  the  door  and 
called  in.  Hearing  a  response  from  an 
inner  room  they  went  on  in.  The 
woman  said  the  missionaries  came  and 
stood  beside  her  bed  and  mumbled  a 
little  between  themselves  something  she 
did  not  understand.  Then  one  of  them 
said,  "Well,  it's  highly  irregular,  but 
I  guess  if  you  say  so  it  is  all  right."  The 
next  thing  she  knew  she  had  been  ad- 
ministered to  by  these  Mormon  mission- 
aries. 

She  said  when  they  took  their  hands 
off  her  head  she  sat  up  in  bed.  She  got 
out  of  bed  and  went  into  the  kitchen 
and  got  some  food  from  her  refrigerator. 
Then  she  excused  herself  while  she 
dressed.  The  missionaries  made  an 
appointment  to  come  back  at  another 
time.  When  the  nurse  returned  and 
saw  the  woman  was  up  and  around,  she 
told  her  to  get  back  into  bed.  "No, 
I'm  not  going  back  to  bed.  I  am  healed. 
I  am  well,"  the  woman  said. 

The  nurse,  thinking  she  was  delirious, 
called  the  doctor.  The  doctor  also 
ordered  her  to  get  back  into  bed,  but 
she  refused  again  and  said  she  was  well. 
Over  a  year  later,  after  the  doctor  had 
told  her  she  had  but  weeks  to  live,  she 
came  to  Salt  Lake  City  and  went  to 
the  temple,  then  came  to  my  office  for 
a  blessing.  She  was  very  happy,  thrilled 
as  she  had  never  been  before  in  her  life. 
The  happiest  part  of  her  life  has  been 
since  the  doctor  told  her  she  couldn't 


live.  Yet  she  said  it  was  not  the  experi- 
ence of  healing  alone  that  gave  her  a 
testimony  of  the  gospel. 

There  are  other  experiences  such  as 
Brother  Bates  from  England  told  me. 
He  had  been  working  in  the  MIA,  or 
youth  work,  in  Manchester,  England.  A 
large  group  of  circulars  had  to  be  sent 
out  in  the  mail  in  order  to  have  a  youth 
conference  at  a  scheduled  time.  He  and 
his  group  worked  feverishly  together  to 
get  these  circulars  in  the  mail.  It 
seemed  an  almost  impossible  task,  but 
somehow  or  other  they  accomplished  it. 
In  order  to  do  so,  however,  he  had  spent 
all  morning  at  it.  He  had  previously 
made  a  business  appointment  for  one 
o'clock  at  a  distance  which  he  knew  he 
could  not  drive  in  the  time  he  had  left. 
He  had  often  driven  there  before,  and 
the  time  he  had  left  was  but  a  small 
fraction  of  what  he  knew  it  would  take 
to  cover  that  distance.  But  he  said,  "I 
will  take  care  of  the  Lord's  work  first, 
and  then  I  will  leave  it  up  to  the  Lord 
as  to  how  my  business  works  out." 

He  got  into  his  sports  car  and  drove 
that  distance  as  fast  as  he  could  in 
safety,  as  he  had  done  many  times  be- 
fore. His  appointment  was  for  one 
o'clock,  I  think  he  said.  When  he  drove 
through  the  gates  of  the  establishment, 
the  clock  in  the  tower  struck  one.  He 
could  not  believe  it.  He  said  it  was 
impossible.  There  was  something  wrong. 
He  got  out  of  his  car,  and  the  man  he 
was  to  meet  was  waiting  for  him.  He 
said,  "That's  what  I  like  about  you — 
your  punctuality.  Right  on  the  stroke 
of  the  time  you  are  supposed  to  be  here, 
you  are  here.  That  is  what  I  like  about 
you."  In  the  course  of  proceedings  the 
man  gave  him  an  order  worth  10,000 
pounds,  without  Brother  Bates  even  ask- 
ing for  it,  or  without  his  even  selling  the 
man  on  his  goods.  He  said,  "That  is 
what  the  Lord  did  because  I  did  my 
Church  work  first.  But  these  experiences 
alone  are  not  what  is  giving  me  a  testi- 
mony of  the  divinity  of  the  gospel." 

I  could  go  on  with  many  similar  ex- 
periences. We  hear  them  in  our 
testimony  meetings  all  the  time.  An 
instructor  in  a  Sunday  School  class  was 
talking  about  the  Book  of  Mormon.  All 
the  members  of  the  class  had  testified 
that  they  had  a  testimony  of  the  di- 
vinity of  the  Book  of  Mormon.  They 
were  discussing  the  three  witnesses,  and 


64  GENERAL  C 

Saturday,  October  10 

the  eight  witnesses — discussing  why 
there  were  these  witnesses.  Some  said 
that  the  reason  for  them  was  to  give 
others  a  testimony  of  the  divinity  of  the 
Book  of  Mormon.  Then  the  teacher 
asked  the  class,  "How  many  here  have 
a  testimony  of  the  divinity  of  the  Book 
of  Mormon  because  of  the  three  wit- 
nesses?" There  was  not  one  who  raised 
a  hand.  He  said,  "What  is  it,  then,  that 
gives  you  a  testimony  of  the  divinity  of 
the  Book  of  Mormon  or  the  divinity  of 
the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ?  It  is  some- 
thing down  inside,  isn't  it?  There's 
something  inside  of  us  that  testifies  to 
us  of  the  truth  of  the  gospel." 

Many  might  explain  away  these 
miraculous  experiences.  They  might  say 
that  the  woman  would  have  been  healed 
anyway.  They  might  say  that  Brother 
Bates  got  his  time  mixed  up  or  some 
other  way  of  explaining  the  distance 
he  had  traveled,  which  to  him  was  im- 
possible. But  you  ask  the  individual 
who  had  the  experience — it  doesn't 
make  any  difference  what  the  other 
people  say,  he  knows  down  inside  that 
there  is  something  else  there  that  no 
one  can  take  from  him.  That  is  the 
knowledge,  I  think,  that  Brother  Bruce 
McConkie  was  talking  about  this 
morning  when  he  said  that  we  have  to 
have  knowledge  to  obtain  a  testimony 
of  the  gospel.  It  is  that  knowledge  that 
comes  to  us  from  down  inside. 

We  are  made  up  of  a  spirit  and  a 
physical  body.  That  spirit  body  lived 
in  the  pre-existence,  and  that  spirit  that 
is  down  inside  of  us  and  gives  us  light 
is  what  prompts  us  to  a  knowledge  of 
truth.  When  we  are  in  tune  with  the 
Spirit  of  the  Lord,  that  spirit  within  us 
gives  us  that  knowledge  that  no  one 
else  can  take  from  us.  When  we  keep 
the  commandments  of  the  Lord,  and 
one  of  the  primary  purposes  of  being  on 
this  earth  is  to  learn  obedience  by  our 
experience  and  to  seek  the  gospel  so  that 
we  can  have  as  a  reward  through  our 
free  agency  for  having  lived  the  law  of 
the  gospel,  the  many  blessings  which  the 
gospel  plan  gives  us,  that  spirit  within 
us  prompts  us  and  gives  us  that  knowl- 
edge. 

By  that  method,  the  Lord  has  said: 
".  .  .  seek  and  ye  shall  find,  knock  and 
it  shall  be  opened  unto  you."  (Matt. 
7:7.)  It  does  not  come  by  just  sitting  by 


Second  Day 

and  waiting  and  expecting  it  to  come  to 
us;  we  have  to  reach  for  it.  And  after 
we  have  reached  for  it,  after  we  have 
fulfilled  the  law  by  which  we  may  re- 
ceive these  blessings,  then,  through 
faith,  these  signs  follow.  And  these 
signs  that  follow  testify  to  us  again  that 
this  is  God's  work;  that  he  is  directing 
his  Church  here  upon  the  earth. 

Many  may  ask,  "How  do  we  get  these 
testimonies?"  They  come  to  us  through 
experience,  yes,  by  our  own  efforts.  I 
would  like  to  refer  to  the  well-used  pas- 
sage in  the  Book  of  Mormon,  the 
admonition  of  Moroni  to  obtain  a  testi- 
mony of  the  divinity  of  the  gospel  of 
Jesus  Christ: 

"And  when  ye  shall  receive  these 
things,  I  would  exhort  you  that  ye 
would  ask  God,  the  Eternal  Father,  in 
the  name  of  Christ,  if  these  things  are 
not  true;  and  if  ye  shall  ask  with  a 
sincere  heart,  with  real  intent,  having 
faith  in  Christ,  he  will  manifest  the 
truth  of  it  unto  you,  by  the  power  of 
the  Holy  Ghost. 

"And  by  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
ye  may  know  the  truth  of  all  things." 
(Moroni  10:4-5.) 

We  have  here  the  promise  that  truth 
and  knowledge  in  all  things  shall  be 
given  unto  us  if  we  shall  seek  in  faith, 
and  if  we  shall  put  ourselves  in  tune 
with  the  Holy  Spirit,  that  Spirit  will 
speak  to  us  and  give  us  those  experiences 
that  will  give  us  knowledge  of  the  gos- 
pel of  Jesus  Christ. 

I  testify  to  you  that  I  know  this  is  the 
gospel  of  Jesus  Christ;  that  I  know  that 
God  lives  and  Jesus  is  the  Christ;  and 
that  this  gospel  which  has  been  re- 
stored to  us  through  the  Prophet  Joseph 
Smith  by  revelation  is  the  plan  of  life 
and  salvation,  and  the  way  by  which 
we  may  receive  all  the  blessings  of  ex- 
altation which  have  been  promised 
down  through  the  ages,  and  I  testify  to 
you  to  this  end  in  the  name  of  Jesus 
Christ.  Amen. 

President  David  O.  McKay: 

Elder  Eldred  G.  Smith,  Patriarch  to 
the  Church,  has  just  spoken  to  us.  We 
shall  now  hear  from  Bishop  Joseph  L. 
Wirthlin,  Presiding  Bishop  of  the 
Church.  He  will  be  followed  by  Elder 
EIRay  L.  Christiansen. 


65 


BISHOP  JOSEPH  L.  WIRTHLIN 

Presiding  Bishop  of  the  Church 


My  brethren  and  sisters,  it  has  been 
a  great  source  of  inspiration  to  have  the 
privilege  of  attending  this  wonderful 
conference.  As  I  listened  yesterday  to 
our  prophet,  I  felt  that  we  were  receiving 
the  same  direction,  the  same  inspiration, 
the  same  guidance,  as  did  the  members 
of  the  Church  two  thousand  years  ago 
when  Peter  and  the  apostles  stood  be- 
fore them  periodically  and  taught  them 
the  gospel.  Yesterday  we  had  that  Spirit 
here.  We  have  had  it  today.  It  is  the 
Spirit  of  the  Lord.  Each  and  every  one 
of  us  can  feel  it  as  we  listen  to  what 
is  said  by  our  brethren. 

It  is  a  marvelous  thing  to  belong  to 
the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-day 
Saints  and  know  that  there  stands  at 
the  head,  a  prophet  who  receives  from 
on  high  the  guidance  and  the  direction 
that  is  necessary  for  the  sons  and 
daughters  of  our  Heavenly  Father,  not 
only  those  here,  but  those  all  over  the 
world.  Our  President  in  the  years  gone 
by  has  traveled  to  many  lands  for  the 
purpose  of  preaching  to  the  people  that 
they  can  understand  the  gospel  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  and  have  the  privilege 
of  living  it  and  enjoying  all  the  bless- 
ings therein. 

I  often  think  that  I  happen  to  be  a 
member  of  the  Church,  not  because  I 
accepted  it,  but  because  I  was  born  in 
the  Church,  and  I  assume  most  of  you 
who  are  present  this  afternoon  have 
membership  in  the  Church  because  you 
were  born  in  it.  On  the  other  hand, 
we  have  quite  a  number  of  our  brethren 
and  sisters  who  are  converts,  those  who 
had  the  privilege  of  receiving  the  gospel 
from  the  missionaries  in  various  parts 
of  the  country.  You  and  I  who  were 
born  in  the  Church  have  received  it, 
brethren  and  sisters,  without  any  great 
demands  on  our  part,  except  that  we 
live  the  gospel  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
and  set  the  proper  example  to  those  not 
of  our  faith. 

I  often  think  of  my  two  grandfathers — 
one  was  born  in  England  and  the  other 
was  born  in  Switzerland.  The  one  in 
England  at  the  age  of  twenty-one  was 
very  anxious  to  find  the  Church  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Yes,  he  belonged  to 
another  church,  a  great  church,  but  he 


was  not  satisfied.  He  could  not  under- 
stand the  matter  of  baptism.  He  could 
not  understand  the  matter  of  authority. 
He  could  not  find  it. 

One  Saturday  evening  on  retiring  to 
his  bed,  he  made  it  a  matter  of  prayer. 
He  asked  the  Lord  if  the  Church  of 
Jesus  Christ  was  upon  the  earth  could 
he  be  directed  to  it.  That  night  he  had 
a  dream,  and  in  the  dream  he  saw  not 
too  far  from  where  he  lived  a  road, 
and  at  the  end  of  it  was  a  little  chapel. 
When  he  arose  Sunday  morning,  he 
was  so  impressed  with  the  dream  he 
immediately  dressed  and  went  down  the 
road,  and  there  was  the  little  chapel. 
In  it  two  men  were  preaching  the  gospel 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  who  were 
they — two  Mormon  missionaries!  My 
grandfather  immediately  joined  the 
Church.  There  was  no  question  about 
it  in  his  mind. 

I  am  positively  sure  that  over  the 
world  where  individuals  have  a  desire  to 
find  the  true  Church,  they  can  find  it. 
They  may  find  it  in  the  way  of  a  dream, 
or  they  may  find  it  by  the  missionaries 
who  may  come  to  their  homes  and  teach 
them  the  gospel  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

My  grandfather  finally  made  the  long 
trip  to  America  and  came  into  this  area 
with  his  family  of  ten  children  of  which 
my  mother  was  the  youngest.  It  was  a 
difficult  thing  to  find  the  right  kind  of 
work.  He  worked  in  a  coal  mine,  an 
experience  he  had  never  had.  He 
labored  there  for  some  six  months,  then 
came  to  Salt  Lake  City  to  get  his  pay. 
He  was  paid  for  three  months.  He  quit 
his  job  and  finally  settled  on  a  little 
farm  near  Tooele,  Utah,  but  there  was 
no  water  and  that  created  a  problem. 
As  I  have  read  his  history  he  had  writ- 
ten day  by  day,  there  was  difficulty  on 
every  hand,  but  not  once  did  I  ever  find 
my  grandfather  finding  fault  or  con- 
demning the  Church.  When  general 
conference  was  held  comparable  to  this 
one,  he  used  to  hitch  up  his  old  team, 
and  it  was  an  old  team,  and  drive  into 
Salt  Lake  City,  and  here  he  remained  for 
four  days  and  attended  all  of  the  meet- 
ings. It  is  marvelous  to  read  of  the 
great  inspiration  he  received  hearing 
the  Prophet  Brigham  Young  at  that  time. 


66 

Saturday,  October  10 

When  he  attended  conference,  they 
were  the  best  four  days  of  the  whole 
year,  hearing  the  gospel  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  taught  by  the  prophet. 
Brigham  Young  was  a  prophet  to  him, 
and  is  it  not  a  wonderful  thing  to  know, 
brethren  and  sisters,  that  from  the  days 
of  the  Prophet  Joseph  Smith  until  the 
present  time,  we  have  a  prophet,  seer, 
and  revelator,  so  that  through  the  direc- 
tion of  our  Heavenly  Father,  we  will 
be  guided  and  directed  wherein  we  will 
receive  the  blessings  that  we  need. 

President  Clark  told  of  conditions 
that  might  exist  in  the  world  because 
there  is  a  great  nation  and  a  government 
which  does  not  teach  or  permit  its  peo- 
ple to  believe  that  Jesus  Christ  actually 
lives  and  is  the  Son  of  God.  As  Presi- 
dent Clark  said,  some  day  that  may 
create  difficulties  for  us.  Nevertheless, 
I  hope  and  pray  that  each  and  every  one 
of  us  will  so  live  the  gospel  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  that  when  that  day  of  diffi- 
culty comes,  we  through  prayer,  faith, 
and  divine  direction  from  our  Heavenly 
Father  will  be  able  to  meet  our  problems 
and  solve  them. 

We  have  a  great  responsibility  of  liv- 
ing the  gospel  because  the  world  expects 
us  to  be  a  different  people,  which  brings 
to  mind  the  statement  of  an  individual 
who  had  the  privilege  of  visiting  the  Los 
Angeles  Temple  before  it  was  dedicated. 
This  individual  said,  "The  temple  is 
beautiful.  It  is  a  marvelous  building, 
but  the  Mormons  have  something  that 
is  different."  I  do  not  know  exactly 
what  that  individual  had  in  mind, 
whether  she  thought  the  temple  in  and 
of  itself  was  beautiful  or  something  that 
was  different,  whether  she  thought  we 
have  the  priesthood  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  or  whether  or  not  she  was  giv- 
ing consideration  to  the  fact  that  we  are 
doing  work  for  the  dead.  Nevertheless, 
an  impression  was  made  upon  that  indi- 
vidual. So,  in  all  of  our  lives,  wherever 
we  go,  we  are  going  to  make  an  impres- 
sion on  those  with  whom  we  come  in 
contact.  As  a  people,  we  are  indeed  a 
"different"  people. 

It  is  a  wonderful  thing  to  know  that 
in  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter- 
day  Saints,  brethren  and  sisters,  the 
choice  young  men  at  the  age  of  twelve 
may  receive  the  Aaronic  Priesthood — 
the  Aaronic  Priesthood,  a  divine  gift 
which  was  bestowed  upon  the  Prophet 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


Second  Day 

Joseph  Smith  and  Oliver  Cowdery  by 
John  the  Baptist  himself.  I  humbly  pray 
that  in  your  homes  where  your  sons 
hold  the  office  of  deacon,  teacher,  or 
priest,  there  is  going  to  be  positive  as- 
surance that  these  young  men  realize 
that  they  have  the  most  divine  gift  of 
God  to  his  sons. 

If  we  have  any  difficulty  at  all  in 
connection  with  the  Aaronic  Priesthood, 
where  some  of  them  may  become  in- 
active and  not  as  interested  as  they 
should  be,  I  think  it  comes  about  many 
times  because  fathers  and  mothers  are 
not  giving  consideration  to  the  fact  that 
their  sons  hold  the  Aaronic  Priesthood, 
the  priesthood  that  was  held  by  John 
the  Baptist. 

It  is  a  wonderful  thing  to  sit  down 
with  your  son — he  may  be  a  deacon,  a 
teacher,  or  a  priest — and  say  to  him, 
"You  hold  the  Aaronic  Priesthood.  John 
the  Baptist  held  the  Aaronic  Priesthood. 
He  was  a  priest.  He  baptized  Jesus 
Christ." 

Is  it  not  wonderful  to  know  that  your 
son  at  the  age  of  sixteen  may  have  the 
same  privilege  of  baptizing  as  did  John 
the  Baptist  about  two  thousand  years 
ago.  It  is  so  impressive,  brothers  and 
sisters,  that  these  young  men  will  come 
to  the  conclusion  that  holding  the 
Aaronic  Priesthood  is  the  most  important 
gift  that  God  can  bestow  upon  them  at 
their  particular  age.  So  teach  them, 
inspire  them,  and  direct  them  in  con- 
nection with  their  assignments  in  the 
Aaronic  Priesthood  work,  that  when  the 
day  comes  for  them  to  receive  the  Mel- 
chizedek  Priesthood,  they  are  going  to 
feel  in  their  own  souls,  "Now  I  hold 
the  priesthood  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ," 
for  the  Christ  himself  is  the  Great  High 
Priest,  and  everyone  of  these  young  men, 
if  worthy,  sooner  or  later  is  going  to 
have  the  privilege  of  holding  the  office 
of  an  elder  or  a  seventy  or  a  high  priest. 

It  is  most  inspiring  and  encouraging 
to  me  as  I  have  the  privilege  of  coming 
in  contact  with  these  young  men  who 
have  a  desire  to  go  out  and  preach  the 
gospel,  as  they  may  have  been  called 
by  the  President  of  the  Church  in  con- 
nection with  the  bishop  of  the  ward. 
In  interviewing  them,  I  always  ask 
them  the  question,  "Can  you  bear  testi- 
mony that  Joseph  Smith  actually  saw 
the  Father  and  the  Son?  That  is  the 
statement  you  will  have  to  make  because 


BISHOP  JOSEPH  L.  WIRTHLIN 


67 


we  stand  on  that  wonderful  event  as 
a  Church,  that  Joseph  Smith  at  the 
age  of  fourteen  actually  saw  the  Father 
and  the  Son." 

It  is  most  thrilling  and  inspiring  to 
know  that  these  young  men  at  the  age 
of  twenty  can  say,  "Yes,  I  can  bear 
testimony  that  Joseph  Smith  actually 
saw  the  Father  and  the  Son."  They 
should  be  able  to  do  that,  brothers  and 
sisters,  because  they  have  held  the 
Aaronic  Priesthood  from  the  age  of 
twelve  until  the  age  of  twenty  when 
they  receive  the  Melchizedek  Priesthood. 
They  should  have  been  taught  and 
should  have  the  knowledge  that  they 
can  bear  these  wonderful  testimonies 
which  are  so  important. 

In  the  final  analysis,  this  Church  is 
the  Church  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
That  is  the  testimony,  brothers  and  sis- 
ters, that  we  ought  to  bear  to  our  sons, 
our  daughters,  and  our  grandchildren. 
This  is  the  Church  which  is  preparing 
the  way  for  the  second  coming  of  Christ. 
That  is  our  responsibility.  It  is  one 
of  the  most  important  responsibilities 
that  any  group  of  people  can  have. 

Now  with  reference  to  these  other  na- 
tions that  do  not  have  the  privilege  of 
hearing  or  understanding  the  gospel  of 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  it  is  my  feeling 
that  some  day  they  will  have  that  op- 
portunity. They  are  going  to  have  that 
privilege.  Was  it  not  said  to  whom  the 
gospel  was  to  be  preached — to  every 
nation,  kindred,  tongue,  and  people. 
Whether  or  not  we  will  be  able  to  send 
missionaries  into  Russia  to  preach  the 
gospel,  I  do  not  know,  but  I  do  remem- 
ber President  Clark  said  something 
about  two  years  ago,  and  I  have  never 
forgotten  it.  He  said  that  perhaps  we  will 
be  able  to  preach  the  gospel  to  the 
people  of  Russia  out  of  Salt  Lake  City 
over  television  or  radio  or  something 
else.  That  day  will  come  when  the 
Russian  people  will  hear  and  under- 
stand the  gospel  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
not  only  the  people  of  Russia,  but  also 
the  millions  in  China  and  the  millions 
in  India.  They  are  all  the  sons  and 
daughters  of  our  Heavenly  Father,  and 
I  am  satisfied  that  Jesus  Christ  is  just 
as  anxious  that  they  hear  the  gospel 
and  enjoy  all  the  same  privileges  that 
we  have.  In  some  way  and  at  some 
future  time,  these  great  events  are  going 
to  take  place. 


We  have  a  great  responsibility,  and 
I  think  of  the  words  of  Peter  when  he 
said,  speaking  to  the  people: 

"But  ye  are  a  chosen  generation,  a 
royal  priesthood,  an  holy  nation,  a  pe- 
culiar people;  that  ye  should  shew  forth 
the  praises  of  him  who  hath  called  you 
out  of  darkness  into  his  marvellous 
light."  (I  Peter  2:9.) 

If  we  live  the  gospel  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  we  are  "a  chosen  generation."  We 
are  a  chosen  generation  because  through 
the  wonderful  revelations  that  were 
given  to  the  Prophet  Joseph,  we  have 
the  commandments,  we  have  the  direc- 
tion, we  have  the  guidance  that  is 
necessary  to  so  live  the  gospel  that  we 
indeed  are  going  to  be  a  chosen  genera- 
tion. 

And  "a  royal  priesthood" — the  Aaronic 
and  the  Melchizedek — the  Aaronic 
Priesthood  coming,  as  I  have  already 
indicated,  when  John  the  Baptist  ap- 
peared and  bestowed  it  upon  Joseph 
Smith  and  Oliver  Cowdery.  Then, 
Peter,  James,  and  John,  the  apostles  of 
old  and  the  Presidency  of  the  Church 
some  eighteen  hundred  years  before, 
appeared  and  bestowed  upon  Joseph 
Smith  and  Oliver  Cowdery  the  Mel- 
chizedek Priesthood.  Indeed,  might  we 
say,  it  is  a  royal  priesthood. 

"An  holy  nation,"  of  course,  an  holy 
nation,  as  I  understand  it,  is  the  Church 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  This  is  an  holy 
nation,  and  all  of  those  who  have  mem- 
bership in  the  Church  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  are  in  that  holy  nation  as  long 
as  they  live  the  gospel. 

"A  peculiar  people" — a  peculiar  people 
because  we  accept  without  question 
Jesus  Christ  as  the  Son  of  God!  A  pe- 
culiar people  because  we  declare  to  the 
world  that  God  the  Father  and  his  Son 
Jesus  Christ  appeared  to  that  fourteen- 
year-old  young  man  and  gave  him  the 
direction  and  inspiration  whereby  the 
Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-day 
Saints  could  again  be  established  upon 
the  earth  for  the  benefit,  the  direction, 
and  the  inspiration  of  all  the  sons  and 
daughters  of  our  Heavenly  Father,  and 
".  .  .  that  ye  should  shew  forth  the 
praises  of  him  who  hath  called  you  out 
of  darkness  into  his  marvellous  light." 
(Idem.) 

My  testimony  to  you  is  this:  if  my 
grandfather  in  Switzerland,  if  my  grand- 
father in  England  had  not  had  the 


68 

Saturday,  October  10 

privilege  of  hearing  and  understanding 
the  gospel,  we  as  a  family,  without  a 
doubt,  would  still  be  in  the  darkness  of 
the  world,  but  because  they  accepted  the 
gospel,  it  is  possible  now  for  all  of  us 
to  go  into  the  marvelous  light  of  the 
Church,  the  marvelous  light  of  Jesus 
Christ  himself. 

We  have  a  great  responsibility  of  so 
living  the  gospel  that  it  will  be  a  great 
source  of  inspiration  and  divine  guid- 
ance to  all  of  those  with  whom  we  come 
in  contact. 

In  the  final  analysis,  as  we  live  the 
gospel,  it  is  a  wonderful  thing  to  think 
of  the  words  of  Jesus  Christ,  "And  ye 
shall  know  the  truth,  and  the  truth  shall 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


Second  Day 

make  you  free."  (John  8:32.)  That  is 
the  promise  and  the  blessing  that  each 
and  every  one  of  us  may  live  and  un- 
derstand— that  we  shall  know  the  truth 
and  the  truth  shall  make  us  free. 

May  the  Lord  continue  to  inspire  us 
in  all  of  our  endeavors,  I  humbly  ask 
in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ.  Amen. 

President  David  O.  McKay: 

Bishop  Joseph  L.  Wirthlin,  Presiding 
Bishop  of  the  Church,  has  just  addressed 
us.  We  shall  now  hear  from  Elder 
EIRay  L.  Christiansen,  Assistant  to  the 
Twelve. 


ELDER  ELRAY  L.  CHRISTIANSEN 

Assistant  to  the  Council  of  the  Twelve  Apostles 


I  humbly  pray,  my  brothers  and  sis- 
ters, that  what  I  say  may  give  encourage- 
ment and  fortitude  to  someone.  We  have 
had  some  marvelous  addresses  given, 
some  wonderful  music,  all  of  which 
should  inspire  us  to  go  forth  and  live 
better  lives. 

I  believe  that  each  of  us  needs  a 
spiritual  checkup  just  about  as  often  as 
we  need  a  physical  checkup;  that  each 
of  us,  the  young,  and  the  rest  of  us, 
needs  to  make  an  appraisal  of  himself 
as  a  member  of  the  Church  of  Jesus 
Christ,  and  as  the  head  of  a  family,  or 
as  a  member  of  a  family,  from  time  to 
time  to  determine  the  degree  of  our 
fidelity  and  our  allegiance  and  adher- 
ence to  the  accepted  rules  and  doctrines 
of  the  Church. 

One  of  the  ancient  prophets  of  whom 
Elder  Kimball  spoke,  had  this  day  in 
mind — when  he  said: 

"Yea,  and  there  shall  be  many  which 
shall  say:  Eat,  drink,  and  be  merry,  for 
tomorrow  we  die;  .  .  . 

"And  there  shall  also  be  many  which 
shall  say:  Eat,  drink,  and  be  merry; 
nevertheless,  fear  God — he  will  justify 
in  committing  a  little  sin;  yea,  lie  a 
little,  take  the  advantage  of  one  because 
of  his  words,  dig  a  pit  for  thy  neigh- 
bor; there  is  no  harm  in  this;  and  do 
all  these  things,  for  tomorrow  we  die; 
and  if  it  so  be  that  we  are  guilty,  God 
will  beat  us  with  a  few  stripes,  and  at 


last  we  shall  be  saved  in  the  kingdom 
of  God."  (2  Nephi  28:7-8.) 

Is  this  prediction  of  Nephi  coming  to 
pass  in  our  day?  Are  there  those  of  us 
who  would  justify  ourselves  in  com- 
mitting a  little  sin?  Are  there  those  of 
us  who  would  yield  to  the  enticement 
and  the  pressure  of  acquaintances  and 
associates  to  "eat,  drink,  and  be  merry," 
on  certain  occasions?  Would  we,  for 
instance,  when  in  the  company  of  cer- 
tain others,  forsake  principles,  propriety, 
and  decency  in  order  to  conform  with 
and  be  accepted  by  the  group?  So- 
called  social  drinking,  for  example? 
Would  we  forsake  the  high  principles 
of  conduct  which  we  as  a  people  espouse 
and  yield  to  the  unapproved  practices 
when  we  know  that  to  do  so  weakens 
one's  character,  discredits  his  family 
name,  and  will  bring  sorrow  and  un- 
happiness  in  place  of  joy  and  peace? 

"We  believe  in  being  honest,  true, 
chaste,  benevolent,  virtuous,  and  in 
doing  good  to  all  men.  ...  If  there  is 
anything  virtuous,  lovely,  or  of  good 
report  or  praiseworthy,  we  seek  after 
these  things."  (Thirteenth  Article  of 
Faith.) 

This  being  the  case — this  being  our 
standard,  could  it  be  then  that  any  of 
us  would  lie  a  little,  or  take  advantage 
of  one  because  of  his  words,  perhaps 
by  misquoting  or  exaggerating  what  he 
said?    Are  there  any  of  us  who  would 


ELDER  ELRAY  L.  CHRISTIANSEN 


69 


figuratively  dig  a  pit  for  his  neighbor, 
hoping  that  he  will  fall  into  it?  Per- 
haps by  taking  unfair  advantage  of 
him,  by  shrewd  maneuvering,  thinking 
that  as  long  as  one  gets  away  with  it 
that  he  is  a  trustworthy  and  honest  man. 

"Make  of  yourself  an  honest  man," 
said  Carlyle,  "and  then  you  may  be 
sure  that  there  is  one  rascal  less  in  the 
world." 

Are  there  any  of  us  who  would  justify 
ourselves  in  any  of  these  things,  these 
wrongdoings?  If  there  be,  let  us  repent 
as  of  today.  Farther  on,  this  same  great 
prophet,  Nephi,  points  out  that  those 
who  feel  justified  in  sinning  a  little, 
being  enticed  by  the  vain  practices  of 
the  world,  are  placing  themselves  in  a 
position  where,  he  says,  "the  devil 
cheateth  their  souls,  and  leadeth  them 
carefully  down  to  hell."  (2  Nephi 
28:21.)  How  well  put  that  is,  and  how 
true! 

The  evils  and  the  vanities  of  the 
world,  and  the  corruption  thereof  are 
thrust  close  to  our  lives.  Enticings  and 
pressures  to  depart  from  the  right  are 
found  on  every  hand.  Some  of  these 
wrongdoings  are  almost  glorified. 

Realizing  this,  we  must,  as  Latter-day 
Saints,  young  and  old,  be  firm  for  that 
which  we  know  to  be  right,  and  in  the 
right  be  steadfast  and  immovable.  Each 
of  us  must  set  his  own  course.  Each 
household  must  determine  whether  its 
members  will  follow  the  worldly  pattern 
of  loose,  reckless  living,  or  be  obedient 
to  the  commandments  of  the  Lord. 

When  the  tribes  of  ancient  Israel  in- 
clined their  hearts  toward  the  worship 
of_  heathen  gods,  forsaking  God-given 
principles,  you  remember  that  Joshua, 
their  leader,  fearing  for  his  people, 
".  .  .  gathered  all  the  tribes  of  Israel  to 
Shechem,  and  called  for  the  elders  of 
Israel,  and  for  their  heads,  and  for  their 
judges,  and  for  their  officers;  and  they 
presented  themselves  before  God." 
(Joshua  24:1.)  Then  it  was  that  he 
pointed  out  to  them  what  was  happen- 
ing among  them,  and  admonished  them 
to  put  away  their  strange  gods  and  their 
evil  ways,  and  he  called  upon  them  to 
repent,  exhorting  them  to  serve  the  Lord 
God  of  Israel  with  sincerity.  Then  in 
the  majesty  of  his  calling  as  a  prophet, 
he  said  to  them,  ".  .  .  choose  you  this 
day  whom  ye  will  serve;  ...  but  as  for 


me  and  my  house,  we  will  serve  the 
Lord."  (Ibid.,  15.) 

Just  as  Israel  in  that  day  had  to  make 
that  decision,  so  must  that  decision  be 
made  by  us  today.  I  must  make  that 
decision.  You  must  make  that  decision. 
For  example,  in  this  day  of  widespread 
desecration  of  the  Sabbath,  when  it  is 
considered  merely  a  part  of  a  week- 
end, and  when  it  is  used  by  many  for 
amusement  and  pleasure-hunting,  shop- 
ping, etc.,  do  I,  do  you,  serve  the  Lord 
by  being  where  we  ought  to  be,  doing 
what  we  ought  to  do,  on  his  holy  day? 

Again,  when  friends  or  acquaintances 
urge  the  use  of  tobacco  or  intoxicating 
liquor,  do  we  yield  just  to  be  sociable? 
If  I  and  my  house  are  determined  to 
serve  the  Lord  in  the  law  of  health, 
there  will  be  no  yielding  to  such  pres- 
sures. 

When  marriage  is  contemplated,  will 
the  plan  be  a  temporary  legal  arrange- 
ment where  eternal  association  is 
forfeited,  or  will  it  be  administered  ac- 
cording to  the  ordinances  of  God;  accord- 
ing to  his  sweet  and  wonderful  way  of 
making  possible  a  grand  family  reunion 
in  the  resurrection?  That  is  the  question 
we  must  determine  when  it  comes  to 
that  occasion,  or  before  it  comes  to  that, 
for  we  must  plan  ahead  of  time  for  that 
great  episode  in  our  lives. 

One  other  matter — the  destroying  sin 
of  unchastity  and  moral  laxity  has  been 
one  of  the  dominant  factors  in  the 
downfall  of  many  proud  people  and 
many  great  empires.  Among  the  peo- 
ple today,  this  same  destroyer  of  happi- 
ness presents  a  dismal  picture  for  the 
safety  and  peace  of  this  and  future 
generations. 

A  few  years  ago  the  First  Presidency 
issued  a  warning  to  the  Latter-day  Saints 
and  to  the  world  generally  against  this 
sin.  Among  other  positive  statements 
they  made,  they  said  this:  "The  doctrine 
of  this  Church  is  that  sexual  sin,  the 
illicit  sexual  relationship  of  men  and 
women  stands  in  its  enormity  next  to 
murder.  The  Lord  has  drawn  no  es- 
sential distinction  between  fornication, 
adultery,  and  harlotry  or  prostitution. 
Each  has  fallen  under  his  solemn  and 
awful  condemnation.  You  youth  of 
Zion,"  they  pleaded,  "you  cannot  asso- 
ciate in  illicit  sex  relationship,  which  is 
fornication,  and  escape  the  judgments 
and  punishments  of  the  Lord  which  he 


70 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


Saturday,  October  10 

has  declared  against  this  sin.  The  day 
of  reckoning  will  come  just  as  certainly 
as  night  follows  day." 

A  similar  warning  was  given  to  those 
husbands  and  wives  who  break  the  moral 
laws.  Then,  by  the  right  they  have 
as  leaders  of  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ, 
spokesman  for  the  Lord  himself,  they 
gave  this  solemn  warning,  along  with 
a  plea  for  strict  morality:  "By  virtue  of 
the  authority  vested  in  us  as  the  First 
Presidency  of  the  Church,  we  warn  the 
people  of  the  degradation,  the  wicked- 
ness, the  punishments  that  attend  upon 
unchastity.  We  urge  you  to  remember 
the  blessings  which  flow  from  the  living 
of  a  clean  life.  We  call  upon  you  to 
keep,  day  in  and  day  out,  the  way  of 
strict  chastity,  through  which  only 
God's  blessings  can  be  achieved  and  re- 
ceived, and  his  Spirit  abide  with  you. 
How  glorious  it  is  to  him  who  lives  the 
chaste  life.  He  walks  unfearful  in  the 
glare  of  the  noonday  sun,  for  he  is  with- 
out moral  infirmity." 

Now,  will  we  listen  to  those  who 
would  minimize  the  seriousness  of  this 
transgression  and  who  would  have  us 
believe  that  the  Lord  has  changed  his 
mind  in  regard  to  it?  Will  we  listen  to 
those  who  say  that  chastity  is  outmoded 
and  old-fashioned?  Each  of  us  must 
stand  for  and  encourage  such  principles 


Second  Day 

as  honesty,  trustworthiness,  virtue.  Let 
us  turn  a  deaf  ear  to  the  advocates  of 
wrongdoing,  and  be  prepared  with 
Joshua  to  say,  as  he  did  to  his  people: 
".  .  .  choose  you  this  day  whom  ye  will 
serve;  but  as  for  me  and  my  house,  we 
will  serve  the  Lord."  (Joshua  24:15.) 

May  we  so  do,  I  pray  humbly,  in  the 
name  of  Jesus  Christ.  Amen. 

President  David  O.  McKay: 

Elder  EIRay  L.  Christiansen,  Assistant 
to  the  Twelve,  has  just  concluded  speak- 
ing. The  University  of  Utah  Choral 
Society,  with  the  Bonneville  Strings  and 
the  Congregation,  will  now  sing,  "We 
Thank  Thee,  O  God,  For  a  Prophet," 
conducted  by  Professor  David  A.  Shand. 


The  University  of  Utah  Combined 
Choruses,  accompanied  by  the  Bonne- 
ville Strings,  and  the  Congregation  sang 
the  hymn,  "We  Thank  Thee,  O  God, 
For  a  Prophet." 

President  David  O.  McKay: 

Elder  Delbert  L.  Stapley  of  the  Coun- 
cil of  the  Twelve  will  be  our  next 
speaker.  He  will  be  followed  by  Elder 
Henry  D.  Taylor. 


ELDER  DELBERT  L.  STAPLEY 

Of  the  Council  of  the  Twelve  Apostles 


My  brothers  and  sisters,  I  am  happy 
indeed  to  extend  the  hand  of  fellowship 
to  Elder  Howard  W.  Hunter,  called  this 
day  as  a  member  of  the  Council  of  the 
Twelve.  I  look  forward  with  joyous 
anticipation  to  association  with  him  in 
that  council.  I  assure  him  of  my  sup- 
port and  my  love  and  my  help. 

Today  I  feel  to  share  with  you  my 
witness  and  humble  testimony  that  this 
Church  is  the  true  Church  of  Christ, 
established  upon  the  earth  in  this  dis- 
pensation of  God's  providence  for  the 
last  time.  It  was  divinely  set  up  by 
our  Lord,  and  possesses  every  truth, 
principle,  and  ordinance  for  the  salva- 
tion and  exaltation  of  those  who  receive 
and  obey  its  plan  of  life. 

I  solemnly  testify  that  every  President 
of  this  Church  has  been  called  of  God, 


and  sustained  by  him  and  by  the  faith- 
ful Church  members  who,  with  uplifted 
hands  before  God,  angels,  and  fellow 
disciples,  agreed  to  accept  and  sustain 
their  leader  as  prophet,  seer,  and 
revel  ator.  We  so  sustain  our  beloved 
President  David  O.  McKay  today.  Ac- 
cording to  the  spirit  of  truth  within  me, 
I  accept  him  in  this  high  position  of 
prophet,  seer,  and  revelator  with  all 
my  heart,  and  uphold  him  without 
question  and  without  reservation.  I  say 
to  you,  my  brothers  and  sisters,  that  if 
everyone  would  keep  his  eyes  on  the 
President  of  this  Church  and  follow 
his  example,  he  would  never  go  wrong. 
I  have  that  faith  and  confidence,  and 
so  testify  to  you  with  full  knowledge  that 
ultimately  I  must  answer  to  God  for 
my  teachings  and  personal  acts. 


ELDER  DELBERT  L.  STAPLEY 


71 


The  members  of  the  Church  must, 
by  implicit  obedience  to  gospel  princi- 
ples and  ordinances,  stand  firm  and 
true  to  the  faith  and  not  be  tossed  about 
by  every  wind  of  doctrine  from  deceiv- 
ing teachers  who  wrongfully  and  wil- 
fully suggest  that  the  Church  in  this 
day  has  gone  astray,  which  claim  I 
humbly  testify  to  you  is  untrue.  Dis- 
senters from  the  Church  in  all  ages  of 
the  world,  influenced  by  evil  design, 
have  zealously  taught  deceptive  and 
false  doctrines  and  led  many  unsuspect- 
ing and  unthinking  souls  into  the  broad 
way  of  apostasy  from  the  truth.  The 
true  servants  of  the  Lord  have  con- 
sistently and  humbly  warned  against 
self-appointed  leaders,  and  have  always 
admonished  the  Saints  to  be  faithful 
and  true  in  keeping  the  commandments 
of  God,  and  thus  develop  faith  and 
strength  against  the  powers  of  evil 
which  are  constantly  leveled  at  them. 

In  the  early  history  of  the  Church,  be- 
cause the  elders  did  not  understand  the 
manifestations  of  different  spirits  abroad 
which  were  disturbing  the  members,  the 
Lord,  in  answer  to  prayerful  inquiry, 
warned: 

"Behold,  verily  I  say  unto  you,  that 
there  are  many  spirits  which  are  false 
spirits,  which  have  gone  forth  in  the 
earth,  deceiving  the  world."  (D&C 
50:2.) 

What  was  true  then  is  true  now,  and 
ever  will  be  until  Satan  and  his  evil 
hosts  are  forever  bound  and  shorn  of 
their  power  to  deceive  and  destroy.  The 
Prophet  Joseph  Smith  taught,  ".  .  .  Noth- 
ing is  a  greater  injury  to  the  children 
of  men  than  to  be  under  the  influence 
of  a  false  spirit  when  they  think  they 
have  the  Spirit  of  God."  (Teachings  of 
the  Prophet  Joseph  Smith,  page  205.) 
How  true  this  statement  is,  and  how 
important  to  know  correct  Church  doc- 
trine and  procedures  to  prevent  stum- 
bling along  life's  way.  It  is  a  great 
blessing  and  gift  to  be  able  to  discern 
and  choose  rightly  between  truth  and 
error. 

To  protect  the  faith  of  Church  mem- 
bers the  Lord  has  revealed: 

"But  ye  are  commanded  in  all  things 
to  ask  of  God,  who  giveth  liberally;  and 
that  which  the  Spirit  testifies  unto  you 
even  so  I  would  that  ye  should  do  in 
all  holiness  of  heart,  walking  uprightly 
before  me,  considering  the  end  of  your 


salvation,  doing  all  things  with  prayer 
and  thanksgiving,  that  ye  may  not  be 
seduced  by  evil  spirits,  or  doctrines  of 
devils,  or  the  commandments  of  men; 
for  some  are  of  men,  and  others  of 
devils."  (D&C  46:7.) 

In  all  the  teachings  and  prophecies 
of  the  prophets  concerning  the  estab- 
lishment of  God's  kingdom  in  the 
Dispensation  of  the  Fulness  of  Times, 
there  is  no  mention  nor  indication  that 
the  Church,  when  once  established, 
would  fail  or  be  given  to  another  peo- 
ple. That  was  not  true  of  the  Church 
in  the  Meridian  of  Time.  The  prophets 
before  the  time  of  Christ,  and  the 
apostles  after,  warned  and  predicted  a 
falling  away  from  the  truth  and  the 
true  Church. 

As  members  of  the  Church,  we  must 
always  remember  that  this  is  the  Dis- 
pensation of  the  Fulness  of  Times,  or, 
the  last  of  all  gospel  dispensations,  when 
all  things  are  to  be  gathered  together 
in  Christ  before  his  coming  to  earth 
again.  The  destiny  of  this  Church  is 
too  great  and  the  time  too  short  for  so 
important  a  work  to  be  bounced  from 
one  group  of  people  to  another.  The 
Lord  would  not  have  it  so  and  has  de- 
creed the  permanency  of  his  latter-day 
kingdom. 

When  John  the  Revelator,  in  a  vision 
of  important  latter-day  events,  wit- 
nessed an  angel  flying  in  the  midst  of 
heaven,  having  the  everlasting  gospel 
to  preach  unto  them  that  dwell  on  the 
earth,  and  to  every  nation,  and  kindred, 
and  tongue,  and  people;  he  quoted  the 
angel  as  saying:  ".  .  .  Fear  God,  and  give 
glory  to  him;  for  the  hour  of  his  judg- 
ment is  come."  (Rev.  14:7.)  Our  era  of 
time  is  the  hour  of  God's  judgment; 
therefore,  this  prophecy  could  not  be 
fulfilled  if  interruptions  were  to  occur 
in  the  progress  and  work  of  the  re- 
stored kingdom. 

The  Prophet  Daniel,  interpreting 
King  Nebuchadnezzar's  dream,  in- 
formed him  that  its  fulfilment  would  be 
in  the  latter  days.  Then,  calling  at- 
tention to  the  kingdoms  that  should 
follow  that  of  the  king  until  many 
kingdoms  resulted,  Daniel  declared: 

"And  in  the  days  of  these  kings  shall 
the  God  of  heaven  set  up  a  kingdom, 
which  shall  never  be  destroyed:  and 
the  kingdom  shall  not  be  left  to  other 
people,  but  it  shall  break  in  pieces  and 


72 

Saturday,  October  10 

consume  all  these  kingdoms,  and  it  shall 
stand  forever. 

".  .  .  God,"  said  Daniel,  concluding 
his  interpretation  of  the  king's  dream, 
"hath  made  known  to  the  king  what 
shall  come  to  pass  hereafter:  and  the 
dream  is  certain,  and  the  interpretation 
thereof  sure."  (Daniel  2:44-45.) 

Here  is  prophetic  evidence  of  the 
continuity  of  God's  latter-day  kingdom 
when  established  upon  the  earth.  Daniel 
emphasized  that  point  dramatically 
when  he  said,  "The  dream  is  certain 
and  the  interpretation  thereof  sure." 
The  kingdom,  prophesied  Daniel,  is  not 
to  be  destroyed;  it  is  not  to  be  left  to 
other  people;  and  it  shall  stand  forever. 
How  convincing  and  certain  this  decla- 
ration is! 

The  Lord,  in  a  revelation  to  the 
Prophet  Joseph  Smith  shortly  after  the 
organization  of  the  Church,  made  this 
pronouncement:  "For  behold,  the  field 
is  white  already  to  harvest;  and  it  is  the 
eleventh  hour,  and  the  last  time  that 
I  shall  call  laborers  into  my  vineyard." 
(D&C  33:3.) 

Again,  the  Lord  revealed  to  the  Proph- 
et: "The  keys  of  the  kingdom  of  God 
are  committed  unto  man  on  the  earth, 
and  from  thence  shall  the  gospel  roll 
forth  unto  the  ends  of  the  earth,  as  the 
stone  which  is  cut  out  of  the  mountain 
without  hands  shall  roll  forth,  until  it 
has  filled  the  whole  earth."  (Ibid.,  65:2.) 

This  latter  declaration  accords  with 
and  confirms  Daniel's  interpretation  of 
King  Nebuchadnezzar's  dream,  for  the 
Prophet  Daniel  spoke  of  the  stone  which 
was  cut  without  hands  which  smote  the 
image  and  became  a  great  mountain,  and 
filled  the  whole  earth. 

The  Prophet  Joseph  Smith  gave  this 
wise  counsel,  which  is  a  true  principle 
in  Church  government  and  is  the  order 
of  the  Holy  Priesthood:  "I  will  inform 
you  that  it  is  contrary  to  the  economy 
of  God  for  any  member  of  the  Church, 
or  any  one,  to  receive  instruction  for 
those  in  authority,  higher  than  them- 
selves; therefore  you  will  see  the  im- 
propriety of  giving  heed  to  them." 
(Teachings  of  the  Prophet  Joseph  Smith, 
page  21.) 

Again  he  taught:  ".  .  .  revelations  of 
the  mind  and  will  of  God  to  the  Church, 
are  to  come  through  the  Presidency. 
This  is  the  order  of  heaven,  and  the 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


Second  Day 

power  and  privilege  of  this  Priesthood." 
(Ibid.,  page  111.) 

And  then  a  powerful  declaration  of 
an  eternal  principle  which  the  Prophet 
Joseph  Smith  said  is  eternal,  undeviat- 
ing,  and  firm  as  the  pillars  of  heaven: 
"I  will  give  you  one  of  the  Keys  of  the 
mysteries  of  the  Kingdom.  It  is  an 
eternal  principle,  that  has  existed  with 
God  from  all  eternity:  That  man  who 
rises  up  to  condemn  others,  finding  fault 
with  the  Church,  saying  that  they  are 
out  of  the  way,  while  he  himself  is 
righteous,  then  know  assuredly,  that  that 
man  is  in  the  high  road  to  apostasy; 
and  if  he  does  not  repent,  will  apostatize, 
as  God  lives."  (Ibid.,  page  156.) 

How  clear  and  forthright  these  state- 
ments are,  and  so  powerfully  and  con- 
vincingly stated  that  there  can  be  no 
doubt  of  their  truth. 

The  Lord  gave  this  instruction  and 
warning  to  the  elders  of  his  Church, 
and  to  all  the  inhabitants  of  Zion 
against  those  individuals  making  false 
claims  and  purporting  to  receive  revela- 
tions: "And  this  shall  be  a  law  unto  you, 
that  ye  receive  not  the  teachings  of  any 
that  shall  come  before  you  as  revelations 
or  commandments; 

"And  this  I  give  unto  you  that  you 
may  not  be  deceived,  that  you  may  know 
that  they  are  not  of  me. 

"For  verily  I  say  unto  you,  that  he 
that  is  ordained  of  me  shall  come  in  at 
the  gate  and  be  ordained  as  I  have  told 
you  before,  to  teach  those  revelations 
which  you  have  received  and  shall  re- 
ceive through  him  whom  I  have  ap- 
pointed." (D&C  43:5-7.) 

Baptism  at  the  hands  of  an  authorized 
servant  of  God  permits  a  person  to  come 
in  at  the  gate;  and  the  way  prescribed 
by  the  Lord,  as  outlined  in  the  preced- 
ing quotation,  by  which  those  ordained 
can  be  known  and  accepted  by  the 
members  of  his  Church  is  clearly  set 
forth  in  the  following  revelation:  "Again 
I  say  unto  you,"  said  the  Lord,  "that 
it  shall  not  be  given  to  anyone  to  go 
forth  to  preach  my  gospel,  or  to  build 
up  my  church,  except  he  be  ordained 
by  some  one  who  has  authority,  and  it 
is  known  to  the  church  that  he  has 
authority  and  has  been  regularly  or- 
dained by  the  heads  of  the  church." 
(Ibid.,  42:11.) 

As  in  past  ages,  men  will  continue  to 
arise  to  plague  the  work  of  God,  for  this 


ELDER  DELBERT  L.  STAPLEY 


73 


is  the  intent  of  Satan  and  ever  has  been 
since  the  beginning  of  man  on  the 
earth. 

There  are  infallible  guiding  princi- 
ples found  in  the  revelations  and  in  the 
historical  records  of  the  Lord's  dealings 
with  his  people  for  their  guidance  and 
protection.  Here  is  a  very  important 
one  given  in  this  last  dispensation  to 
the  Prophet  Joseph  Smith.  The  Lord 
gave  it  as  a  guiding  admonition  to  his 
people.   Said  he: 

"And  all  things  shall  be  done  by 
common  consent  in  the  church,  by  much 
prayer  and  faith,  for  all  things  you  shall 
receive  by  faith."  (Ibid.,  26:2.) 

If  the  members  of  the  Church  will 
follow  this  counsel  and  act  together  in 
prayer  and  true  faith,  the  Holy  Ghost 
will  not  permit  them  to  yield  to  the 
influence  of  error  and  false  teachings 
of  those  who  seek  to  overthrow  the 
work  of  God.  The  great  Nephite 
prophet,  Mosiah,  warning  his  people 
against  kingcraft,  counseled  them  con- 
cerning the  manner  in  which  judges  to 
govern  them  should  be  selected,  and 
wisely  advised: 

"Now  it  is  not  common  that  the  voice 
of  the  people  desireth  anything  contrary 
to  that  which  is  right;  but  it  is  common 
for  the  lesser  part  of  the  people  to  desire 
that  which  is  not  right;  therefore  this 
shall  ye  observe  and  make  it  your  law — 
to  do  your  business  by  the  voice  of  the 
people."  (Mosiah  29:26.) 

All  wavering  and  disaffected  indi- 
viduals should  remember  the  safe- 
guards to  faith  and  testimony  given  by 
the  Lord  through  revelation,  and,  recog- 
nizing and  working  through  constituted 
channels  of  priesthood  authority,  submit 
their  views  or  claims  and  be  willing  to 
abide  by  the  voice  of  the  people,  who, 
conforming  to  the  above-quoted  revela- 
tion, are  to  decide  the  matter  after  exer- 
cising much  faith  and  prayer.  If  they 
would  do  this  before  permitting  them- 
selves to  follow  a  deviating  or  contrary 
course,  and  manifest  the  faith  to  abide 
by  the  voice  of  the  Saints,  they  would 
not  go  astray  nor  depart  from  the  right 
way,  and  their  souls  and  those  of  their 
posterity  would,  through  obedience  to 
the  commandments,  be  saved  in  the 
kingdom  of  God. 

There  are  many  other  scriptural  ref- 
erences and  revelations,  also  statements 
by  Church  leaders,  bearing  upon  this 


subject  which  could  be  quoted,  but  I 
close  with  two  additional  quotations 
from  the  revelations  of  the  Lord  to  the 
Prophet  Joseph  Smith.  The  first  con- 
cerns the  keys  of  priesthood  power  com- 
mitted to  the  First  Presidency  and  the 
Twelve  of  the  Church: 

"For  unto  you,  the  Twelve,  and  those, 
the  First  Presidency,  who  are  appointed 
with  you  to  be  your  counselors  and  your 
leaders,  is  the  power  of  this  priesthood 
given,  for  the  last  days  and  for  the 
last  time,  in  the  which  is  the  dispensa- 
tion of  the  fulness  of  times. 

"For  verily  I  say  unto  you,  the  keys 
of  the  dispensation,  which  ye  have 
received,  have  come  down  from  the 
fathers,  and  last  of  all,  being  sent  down 
from  heaven  unto  you."  (D&C  112:30, 
32.) 

And  now  the  second  and  concluding 
admonition  from  the  Lord,  which  also 
is  a  perfect  safeguard  to  the  membership 
of  this  Church: 

"Hearken,  O  ye  elders  of  my  church 
whom  I  have  called,  behold  I  give  unto 
you  a  commandment,  that  ye  shall  as- 
semble yourselves  together  to  agree  upon 
my  word; 

"And  by  the  prayer  of  your  faith  ye 
shall  receive  my  law,  that  ye  may  know 
how  to  govern  my  church  and  have  all 
things  right  before  me. 

"He  that  receiveth  my  law  and  doeth 
it,  the  same  is  my  disciple;  and  he  that 
saith  he  receiveth  it  and  doeth  it  not,  the 
same  is  not  my  disciple,  and  shall  be 
cast  out  from  among  you."  (Ibid.,  41:2- 
3,  5.) 

Wherefore,  my  brothers  and  sisters, 
when  assembled  together,  as  today,  it 
is  to  instruct  and  edify  each  other  and 
thus  learn  how  to  act  and  how  to  direct 
the  affairs  of  God's  latter-day  kingdom. 
May  I  encourage  all  of  you  to  listen  to 
and  accept  the  teachings  and  counsel 
of  your  brethren  given  in  this  general 
conference  of  the  Church.  How  im- 
portant it  is  for  the  Saints  of  the  king- 
dom to  be  guided  aright,  knowing  that 
false  spirits  are  abroad  in  the  land  to 
deceive,  yes,  even  the  very  elect  of  God 
if  they  are  not  careful  in  keeping  the 
commandments  and  walking  in  faithful 
obedience  to  God's  laws. 

God  bless  you,  my  brothers  and  sis- 
ters, that  you  may  walk  in  obedience 
to  God's  laws.  This  I  humbly  pray  in 
the  name  of  Jesus  Christ.  Amen. 


74 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


Saturday,  October  10 

President  David  O.  McKay: 

He  to  whom  you  have  just  listened  is 
Elder  Delbert  L.  Stapley  of  the  Council 
of  the  Twelve.  (To  Brother  Taylor 
President  McKay  said:)  I  believe  we 
will  hold  you  off  until  morning.  Brother 
Stapley's  sermon  is  a  good  one  with 
which  to  close. 

The  LDS  Institute  of  Religion  and 
the  University  of  Utah  Combined 
Choruses  will  sing,  "Hallelujah  Chorus," 
conducted  by  Elder  David  A.  Shand. 
The  closing  prayer  will  be  offered  by 
Elder  Fred  Wells  Stone,  formerly  presi- 
dent of  the  Tongan  Mission,  after  which 
this  Conference  will  be  adjourned  until 
7  o'clock  this  evening,  when  the  Gen- 
eral Priesthood  Meeting  of  the  Church 
will  be  held  in  this  Tabernacle.  Only 
those  holding  the  Priesthood  are  invited 
to  be  present.  Persons  not  holding  the 
Priesthood  will  kindly  refrain  from  at- 
tempting to  enter  the  building.  This 
Priesthood  session  will  not  be  broad- 
cast. However,  in  addition  to  overflow 
meetings  in  the  Assembly  Hall  and 
Barratt  Hall,  the  proceedings  of  the 
Priesthood  Meeting  will  be  relayed  by 
closed  circuit  to  members  of  the  Priest- 
hood assembled  in  204  other  Church 
buildings  from  Coast  to  Coast  and  in 
Canada. 

The  general  sessions  tomorrow  will  be 
broadcast  as  a  public  service  over  tele- 
vision and  radio  stations  throughout  the 
West.  The  Tabernacle  Choir  Broadcast 
will  be  from  8:30  to  9:00  a.  m.  Those 
desiring  to  attend  this  Broadcast  should 
be  in  their  seats  at  8:15  a.m.  It  is  re- 
quested that  the  audience  remain  quiet 
during  the  broadcast. 

Elder  Richard  L.  Evans  of  the  Council 


Second  Day 

of  the  Twelve  will  be  the  speaker  over 
Columbia  Broadcasting  System's  Church 
of  the  Air  Program  over  KSL  tomorrow 
at  7:30  a.m. 

The  singing,  as  already  announced, 
for  this  session  this  morning  has  been 
furnished  by  the  combined  choruses  of 
the  LDS  Institute  of  Religion  and  the 
University  of  Utah,  with  the  Bonneville 
Strings,  under  the  direction  of  Dr. 
David  A.  Shand.  Alexander  Schreiner 
is  at  the  organ.  I  know  you  have  been 
inspired  by  the  singing  of  these  young 
men  and  young  women,  and  the  in- 
strumentation of  the  Bonneville  Strings. 
I  do  not  know  how  to  thank  them.  It 
has  taken  a  good  many  hours  of  prac- 
tice, probably  interfered  somewhat 
with  your  schooling,  somewhat  with 
examinations,  but  it  is  worth  it.  We 
want  you  to  know  we  appreciate  your 
presence,  Brother  Shand  and  these  young 
people  here  today.  God  bless  you.  May 
you  find  as  much  joy  in  future  service 
in  the  Church  and  to  your  fellowmen 
as  you  found  in  the  service  you  have 
rendered  here,  and  do  as  much  good  as 
you  have  done  today. 

These  young  folks  will  now  sing, 
"Hallelujah  Chorus,"  and  the  closing 
prayer  will  be  offered  by  Elder  Fred 
Wells  Stone,  formerly  president  of  the 
Tongan  Mission. 


The  Combined  Choruses  and  the 
Bonneville  Strings  rendered  the  selec- 
tion, "Hallelujah  Chorus." 

Fred  W.  Stone,  formerly  president  of 
the  Tongan  Mission,  pronounced  the 
benediction. 

Conference  adjourned  until  7:00  p.m. 


GENERAL  PRIESTHOOD  MEETING 


The  General  Priesthood  meeting  of 
the  Church  was  held  in  the  great  Taber- 
nacle Saturday  evening,  October  10, 
1959  at  7:00  p.m. 

President  David  O.  McKay  presided 
at  this  meeting  and  conducted  the  exer- 
cises. 

The  choral  music  was  furnished  by 
the  Men's  Chorus  of  the  Tabernacle 
Choir,  Richard  P.  Condie,  Conductor  of 
the  Tabernacle   Choir,   directing  the 


singing.  Alexander  Schreiner  was  at  the 
organ. 

President  David  O.  McKay: 

This  is  the  fifth  session  of  the  Semi- 
Annual  Confernce  of  the  Church  of 
Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints. 

You  will  be  interested  to  know  that 
these  services  are  being  relayed  by 
closed  circuit  to  members  of  the  Priest- 


BISHOP  STANLEY  SMITH  CHEEVER 


75 


hood  gathered  in  the  Assembly  Hall, 
Barratt  Hall,  and  in  204  other  Church 
buildings  from  Coast  to  Coast  and  in 
Canada.  That  is  in  51  more  buildings 
than  at  last  April  Conference.  So  we 
are  proud  tonight  I  suppose  to  have  the 
largest  gathering  of  the  Priesthood  ever 
assembled  in  the  history  of  the  Church. 

The  singing  during  this  session  will 
be  furnished  by  the  Men's  Chorus  of  the 
Tabernacle  Choir,  with  Elder  Richard 
P.  Condie  as  director  and  Elder  Alex- 
ander Schreiner  at  the  organ. 

We  shall  begin  these  services  by  the 
Men's  Chorus  singing,  "Come  All  Ye 
Sons  of  Zion,"  with  Elder  Condie  con- 
ducting. After  the  singing,  Elder 
Lawrence  T.  Lambert,  president  of  the 
South  Blackfoot  Stake,  will  offer  the 
opening  prayer.  "Come  All  Ye  Sons  of 
Zion,"  by  the  Men's  Chorus  will  now 
be  sung. 


The  Men's  Chorus  of  the  Tabernacle 
Choir  will  now  sing,  "Thou  Art  Repose," 
under  the  direction  of  Elder  Richard  P. 
Condie. 


The  Men's  Chorus  sang  the  hymn, 
"Come  All  Ye  Sons  of  Zion." 

Elder  Lawrence  T.  Lambert,  president 
of  the  South  Blackfoot  Stake,  offered  the 
opening  prayer. 

President  David  O.  McKay: 

We  express  appreciation  for  the 
presence  of  these  members  of  the 
Tabernacle  Choir, — here  on  time,  in 
dignified  dress,  showing  the  respect 
they  have  for  the  Priesthood,  not  only 
that,  but  a  willingness  to  participate 
and  render  service  in  this  great  gather- 
ing. 


The  Men's  Chorus  sang  a  selection, 
"Thou  Art  Repose." 

President  David  O.  McKay: 

Thank  you.   It  is  inspiring. 

Among  the  thousands  assembled  to- 
night are  some  service  men,  21  of  them, 
who  have  flown  in  from  Fort  Sill, 
Meade,  and  Stillwater,  Oklahoma.  We 
appreciate  their  presence  and  commend 
their  spirit  and  interest  in  the  Church 
and  all  service  men  whom  they  repre- 
sent, and  the  great  missionary  work 
which  they  are  doing.  We  will  have 
more  to  say  during  this  Confernce.  We 
welcome  you  and  welcome  all  who  are 
listening  and  joining  in  this  great 
Conference. 

You  who  are  listening  in  will  be 
pleased  to  know  that  the  Tabernacle  is 
filled  beyond  capacity,  the  doorways  are 
filled  with  members  of  the  Priesthood 
who  are  standing  to  participate  in  the 
services. 

Tonight  the  first  thing  we  wish  to 
represent  and  to  emphasize  is  the  re- 
sponsibility and  opportunity  of  the 
ward  teacher,  and  we  have  invited  two 
bishops  to  speak  to  that  topic.  Our  first 
speaker  will  be  Bishop  Stanley  Smith 
Cheever  of  Federal  Heights  Ward,  Emi- 
gration Stake. 


BISHOP  STANLEY  SMITH  CHEEVER 

Federal  Heights  Ward,  Emigration  Stake 


My  dear  brethren  of  the  priesthood,  I 
stand  before  you  tonight  in  humility  and 
with  thanksgiving  in  my  heart  for  the 
opportunity  to  accept  an  assignment  and 
participate  in  this  meeting  tonight. 

Since  receiving  the  call  from  dear 
President  McKay  last  Monday,  who  is 
our  Prophet,  Seer,  and  Revel  ator,  I  as- 
sure you  I  have  had  an  uneasy  week  with 
many  butterflies.  I  feel  that  the  open- 
ing prayer  was  offered  in  my  behalf  and 
I  ask  that  each  of  you  join  with  me  with 


your  faith  and  prayers  that  I  may  de- 
liver a  message  that  may  be  beneficial 
to  all  of  us. 

This  is  the  most  inspirational  sight 
I  have  ever  experienced — I  wish  you 
could  each  share  it  with  me,  standing 
before  the  body  of  the  Priesthood  of  the 
Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-day 
Saints,  the  greatest  brotherhood  in  all 
the  world,  each  of  us  here  holding  the 
Priesthood  of  God,  with  power  and  au- 
thority to  watch  over  the  Church. 


76 

Saturday,  October  10 

In  thinking  of  my  assignment  and  of 
ward  teaching,  I  am  reminded  of  the 
first  assignment  that  I  received  as  a  ward 
teacher.  I  was  born  and  raised  in  Provo, 
the  Provo  Fifth  Ward,  and  my  bishop 
was  Albert  Manwaring.  In  the  year 
1910  I  was  a  teacher  in  the  Aaronic 
Priesthood.  I  was  given  an  assignment 
with  my  senior  companion  Jesse  Knight. 
I  am  sure  many  of  you  present  and  many 
of  you  within  the  sound  of  my  voice, 
knew  Uncle  Jesse,  as  he  was  affection- 
ately called.  He  was  a  kindly  man, 
generous,  thoughtful,  and  loved  by  all 
who  knew  him.  As  you  know,  he  was 
a  man  of  wealth  and  charitable  to  a 
fault. 

Our  home  was  only  a  block  away  and 
easy  to  make  contact  for  our  monthly 
teaching  assignment.  It  was  my  pleasure 
always,  to  go  to  his  home,  to  knock  on 
his  door,  and  be  invited  in.  He  was 
never  in  a  hurry.  He  always  would 
question  me  as  to  what  I  was  doing, 
what  my  plans  were  for  the  future,  and 
he  would  draw  me  out  and  try  to  find 
and  lead  me  as  to  my  ambitions,  looking 
forward  to  the  years  ahead. 

After  we  visited  a  little  while,  we 
would  go  out  on  our  special  assignment 
and  visit  our  district.  In  those  days  we 
did  not  have  a  regular  assigned  message 
to  give  to  the  ward.  We  would  enter 
the  homes  and  Brother  Knight  would 
always  ask  the  fathers  present  to  offer 
prayer  before  we  started  our  visit  and 
started  our  discussions.  After  each  one 
of  those  evenings  I  went  home  with  a 
full  heart,  grateful  for  the  opportunity 
of  the  association  and  grateful  to  be- 
come acquainted  with  the  great  ward 
teaching  program  of  the  Church. 

Brothers,  I  have  never  forgotten  this, 
and  it  brings  to  my  mind  very  keenly 
the  responsibility  we  have  as  senior 
members  or  senior  companions  in  our 
ward  teaching  teams  to  the  boys  of  the 
Aaronic  Priesthood.  It  is  our  oppor- 
tunity and  our  challenge  that  we  give 
them  an  opportunity  to  go  out  with  us, 
to  feel  of  our  spirit,  to  feel  of  their 
spirit,  and  to  ask  for  participation  in 
the  homes.  I  am  sure  each  of  you  is  do- 
ing just  this  in  your  ward  teaching  as- 
signments. 

As  ward  teachers,  it  is  our  responsi- 
bility to  watch  over  the  Church,  and  I 
feel  we  should  take  an  inventory  of 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


Second  Day 

ourselves,  to  see  how  well  we  are  as- 
suming this  great  responsibility.  I  have 
prepared  several  questions.  Let  us  an- 
swer them  in  our  own  hearts: 

Are  we  humble  and  worthy  to  assume 
the  responsibility  of  ward  teaching? 

Do  we  daily  pray  to  our  Heavenly 
Father  for  divine  guidance  in  our  duties 
and  responsibilities? 

Do  we  truly  watch  over  the  member- 
ship of  the  ward  in  our  district? 

Do  we  study  the  message  with  our 
junior  companion  and  make  thorough 
preparation  and  invite  the  family  to  join 
us  in  the  discussion  during  the  presenta- 
tion of  the  message? 

Do  we  enter  the  homes  with  a  friend- 
ly smile  and  a  radiant  happiness,  being 
sure  to  greet  each  member  of  the  family 
present,  not  forgetting  the  younger  mem- 
bers, and  strive  to  call  the  young  ones 
by  their  first  names? 

Do  we  greet  them  at  Church  meetings 
and  social  gatherings,  on  the  street  and 
places  of  business,  and  encourage  and 
invite  them  to  participate  in  all  ward 
functions,  both  social  and  spiritual? 

Do  we  especially  invite  them  to  at- 
tend the  sacrament  meeting? 

Do  we  inquire  about  the  health  and 
needs  of  the  family,  both  spiritual  and 
temporal  and  report  to  the  bishop  where 
help  is  needed? 

Do  we  offer  our  love  and  assistance 
in  time  of  stress  and  sorrow,  during  sick- 
ness and  death,  and  all  adversity? 

Are  we  charitable  and  kindly,  offer- 
ing only  words  of  encouragement  and 
praise? 

Do  we  remember  the  oft-spoken  words 
of  Emerson:  "What  you  are  thunders 
so  loudly  in  my  ears  I  cannot  hear  what 
you  say." 

If  we  strive  to  live  up  to  these  stand- 
ards, our  teaching  will  be  successful  and 
will  bring  to  us  many  blessings. 

Here  are  a  few  scriptural  reference^ 
giving  us  instructions  in  our  duties  and 
responsibilities  as  ward  teachers.  I  read 
from  Section  20  of  the  Doctrine  and 
Covenants,  verses  53  through  55: 

"The  teacher's  duty  is  to  watch  over 
the  church  always,  and  be  with  and 
strengthen  them; 

"And  see  that  there  is  no  iniquity  in 
the  church,  neither  hardness  with  each 
other,  neither  lying,  backbiting,  nor  evil 
speaking; 


BISHOP  STANLEY  SMITH  CHEEVER 


77 


"And  see  that  the  church  meet  together 
often,  and  also  see  that  all  the  members 
do  their  duty." 

I  think  it  is  a  very  important  instruc- 
tion, and  I  am  going  to  read  it  for  a 
second  time,  with  your  permission: 

"The  teacher's  duty  is  to  watch  over 
the  church  always,  and  be  with  and 
strengthen  them; 

"And  see  that  there  is  no  iniquity 
in  the  church,  neither  hardness  with 
each  other,  neither  lying,  backbiting,  nor 
evil  speaking; 

"And  see  that  the  church  meet  to- 
gether often,  and  also  see  that  all  the 
members  do  their  duty." 

This  contains  complete  admonition 
and  instruction  covering  all  of  the 
phases  and  responsibilities  that  we  have 
as  ward  teachers,  and  I  recommend  to 
each  of  you,  that  you  read  fully  the 
entire  Section,  the  twentieth  Section  of 
the  Doctrine  and  Covenants. 

Christ,  during  his  mission  on  earth, 
reminded  us  of  the  necessity  and  re- 
sponsibility to  those  who  need  to  be 
called  to  repentance  and  help  them  to 
find  the  way  back  into  the  fold.  In 
Luke,  Chapter  15,  verse  7,  he  says:  "I 
say  unto  you,  that  likewise  joy  shall  be 
in  heaven  over  one  sinner  that  re- 
penteth,  more  than  over  ninety  and 
nine  just  persons,  which  need  no  re- 
pentance." 

This  shows  us  the  need  of  brotherly 
love  and  the  need  of  always  extending 
a  helping  hand. 

When  Jesus  showed  himself  to  his 
disciples  at  the  Sea  of  Tiberias,  follow- 
ing his  resurrection — as  you  know,  the 
disciples  had  been  fishing  all  night  and 
had  been  unable  to  catch  any  fish — they 
had  caught  nothing,  but  when  the 
morning  came,  Jesus,  who  stood  on  the 
shore  told  them  to  cast  in  the  net  on 
the  right  side  of  the  ship.  They  cast 
therefore,  and  drew  the  net  to  land  full 
of  fishes.  Then  Jesus  commanded 
them  to  bring  the  fishes  they  had 
caught  and  dine  with  him.  When  they 
had  dined,  Jesus  said  to  Simon  Peter, 
"Simon,  son  of  Jonas,  lovest  thou  me 
more  than  these?  He  saith  unto  him, 
Yea,  Lord;  thou  knowest  that  I  love  thee. 
He  saith  unto  him,  Feed  my  lambs. 

"He  saith  to  him  again  the  second 
time,  Simon,  son  of  Jonas,  lovest  thou 
me?    He  saith  unto  him,  Yea,  Lord; 


thou  knowest  that  I  love  thee.  He  saith 
unto  him,  Feed  my  sheep." 

Even  the  second  time  the  Savior  said 
to  Simon  Peter,  "Feed  my  sheep."  This 
admonition  of  the  Savior  to  Peter  might 
well  be  applied  to  the  ward  teachers 
whose  calling  it  is  to  go  forth  among 
the  members  of  the  Church  in  their 
homes  and  minister  to  their  spiritual 
and  temporal  needs.  Ward  teaching 
typifies  the  concern  of  the  Church  for 
the  well-being  of  our  Father's  children. 
It  is  a  means  whereby  we  may  in  very 
deed,  feed  his  sheep,  not  alone  those 
who  seek  us,  but  those  whom  we  must 
seek. 

If  there  is  a  kind  word  that  should  be 
spoken,  may  they  speak  it.  If  there  is  a 
soul  that  needs  encouragement,  may 
they  give  it.  If  there  is  a  temporal  need 
that  cannot  be  met  alone,  may  it  be 
revealed  to  them.  If  there  is  a  need  for 
a  testimony  to  be  borne,  may  the  ward 
teachers  bear  it. 

Who  should  be  ward  teachers?  All 
worthy  bearers  of  the  Priesthood  should 
consider  it  an  honor  and  a  privilege  to 
participate  in  this  function  of  the 
Priesthood.  There  are  very  few  excep- 
tions and  bishops  should  not  hesitate 
to  appoint  bearers  of  the  Priesthood  to 
do  ward  teaching  regardless  of  the  fact 
that  they  are  already  engaged  in  stake 
and  ward  auxiliary  organizations  and 
Priesthood  quorums.  Thus  we  should 
all  accept  the  call  and  receive  the  bless- 
ings that  are  in  store  for  us. 

I  would  like  to  emphasize  again  the 
responsibility  of  the  senior  members  to 
their  junior  companions.  We  know  that 
it  is  difficult  to  arrange  the  proper  time 
and  day,  but  with  a  little  planning  and 
a  little  patience,  this  can  be  arranged, 
and  the  responsibility  actually  lies  with 
the  senior  companion. 

Christ  told  us  that  we  should  love  the 
Lord  our  God  with  all  our  heart,  might, 
mind,  and  strength,  and  our  neighbor 
as  ourselves.  How  better  and  where 
better  could  we  exemplify  and  carry  out 
this  teaching  than  by  fully  and  com- 
pletely accepting  our  responsibility  as 
ward  teachers. 

Ward  teaching  is  a  basic  principle  of 
our  Church.  Its  purpose  is  to  contact 
every  family  in  the  Church  every 
month  of  the  year,  thereby  watching 
over  the  Church  in  word  and  deed  and 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


78 

Saturday,  October  10 

reporting  to  those  in  authority,  where 
need  be,  changes,  conditions,  and  need 
and  want. 

We  are  here  to  work  out  our  own 
salvation  and  exaltation.  Having  kept 
our  first  estate  we  are  now  striving  to 
keep  our  second  estate  and  I  can  think 
of  no  better  way  to  do  that  than  to 
assume  the  responsibility  to  live  a  life 
worthy  of  a  ward  teacher  and  to  carry 
out  the  duties  and  responsibilities  of  a 
ward  teacher. 

In  closing,  I  want  to  leave  with  you 
my  testimony  that  God  lives,  that  he 
hears  and  answers  prayers,  as  he  has 
answered  mine  many  times,  that  in  the 
Sacred  Grove,  when  Joseph  Smith  the 
Prophet  made  his  appeal,  he  was  ap- 
peared to  by  God  the  Father  and  his 
Son  Jesus  Christ,  and  as  a  result  of  this 


Second  Day 

appearance  the  latter-day  Gospel  was 
restored  in  all  its  fullness  and  we  are 
privileged  tonight  to  have  this  meeting 
presided  over  by  our  Prophet,  Seer,  and 
Revelator,  President  David  0.  McKay. 

May  God's  choicest  blessings  be  with 
each  of  us,  may  we  assume  our  responsi- 
bilities fully,  and  may  we  take  from  this 
meeting  renewed  determination  more 
nearly  to  live  according  to  the  com- 
mandments in  word  and  deed,  is  my 
humble  prayer,  in  the  name  of  Jesus 
Christ.  Amen. 


President  David  O.  McKay: 

On  the  same  theme  we  shall  now 
hear  from  Bishop  Ralph  J.  Hill  of  the 
Val  Verda  Ward,  South  Davis  Stake. 


BISHOP  RALPH  J.  HILL 

Val  Verda  Ward,  South  Davis  Stake 


My  dear  brethren,  I  have  studied  and 
fasted  and  prayed,  and  now  I  must  draw 
strength  from  you  and  from  my  Father 
in  Heaven,  from  my  own  testimony  of 
the  truthfulness  of  this  gospel,  and  from 
my  knowledge  that  this  call  came  from 
a  Prophet  of  God.  I  love  President 
McKay  with  all  my  heart,  and  sustain 
him  with  all  my  strength.  I  can  feel 
the  warmth  and  kindness  in  his  great 
soul,  supporting  me  as  I  approach  this 
task. 

I  am  encouraged,  too,  by  the  assur- 
ance that  in  this  Tabernacle  and  in 
assemblies  throughout  the  land  are 
gathered  my  beloved  brethren,  with 
whom  I  share  the  fellowship  of  the 
Priesthood.  In  some  of  these  assem- 
blies, are  men  with  whom  I  have  served 
in  the  stakes  of  Zion.  To  these,  my 
friends,  I  especially  plead  that  I  may 
have  your  faith  and  prayers  with  me 
this  evening. 

Last  week  I  was  entertaining  a  prom- 
inent man  from  the  East  who  was 
visiting  our  city  for  the  first  time.  We 
heard  the  organ  recital,  drove  up  to  the 
monument,  down  to  Welfare  Square, 
back  to  this  block,  and  after  an  hour  he 
felt  confident  enough  to  express  an 
opinion.  He  said,  "Well,  the  genius  of 
this  whole  thing  is  this  volunteer  priest- 
hood."   I  was  not  sure  as  to  the  use  of 


his  term,  volunteer,  although  he  meant 
to  distinguish  us  from  the  professional 
priesthood  of  his  church,  and  that  was 
all  right. 

I  do  feel  that  we  can  agree  with  his 
appraisal — that  upon  the  backs  of  the 
brethren  who  hold  the  Priesthood  of  this 
Church  is  the  responsibility  for  ac- 
complishing our  Father's  purposes  in 
this  dispensation. 

From  the  20th  Section  of  the  Doc- 
trine and  Covenants  which  we  have 
already  heard  read  twice  this  evening, 
I  am  going  to  read  again  a  couple  of 
scriptures.  This  was  given  to  the  Church 
through  the  Prophet  Joseph  Smith  even 
before  the  organization  of  the  Church. 
We  are  told  that  the  obligation  of  the 
Priesthood  is  to  preach,  teach,  expound, 
exhort,  to  visit  the  house  of  each  mem- 
ber, exhorting  them  to  pray  vocally  and 
in  secret  and  attend  to  all  family  duties, 
to  watch  over  the  church  always,  and 
be  with  and  strengthen  them,  and  see 
that  there  is  no  iniquity  in  the  Church, 
neither  hardness  with  each  other, 
neither  lying,  backbiting,  nor  evil  speak- 
ing. 

To  enable  us,  the  brethren  of  the 
Priesthood,  to  accomplish  this  in  an 
organized,  orderly  fashion,  we  have  been 
given  the  ward  teaching  program.  This 
was  instituted  early  in  the  history  of 


BISHOP  RALPH  J.  HILL 


79 


the  Church,  probably  during  the  first 
decade.  Elder  George  Q.  Cannon  tells 
us  that  the  ward  teachers  settled  a  con- 
troversy between  two  of  the  sisters  prior 
to  1839.  William  Cahoon  describes  his 
assignment  as  a  ward  teacher  at  the 
home  of  the  Prophet  in  Nauvoo.  In 
fact,  it  is  difficult  to  comprehend  the 
Church  functioning  in  any  dispensation 
without  the  ward  teaching  program. 

In  Chapter  23  in  Mosiah  in  the  Book 
of  Mormon  we  learn  that  teachers  were 
expected  to  be  men  of  God.  I  quote: 
"And  also  trust  no  one  to  be  your 
teacher  nor  your  minister,  except  he  be 
a  man  of  God,  walking  in  his  ways  and 
keeping  his  commandments.  .  .  . 

"Therefore  they  did  watch  over  their 
people,  and  did  nourish  them  with 
things  pertaining  to  righteousness." 
(Mosiah  23:14,  18.) 

This  sounds  like  a  pretty  good  descrip- 
tion of  a  ward  teacher.  In  the  ward 
teaching  handbook  we  learn  that  the 
responsibility  of  the  ward  teacher  is 
not  imposed  by  any  special  call.  The 
right  of  authority  to  officiate  as  such 
rests  on  every  bearer  of  the  Priesthood 
by  virtue  of  his  ordination.  Of  course, 
it  couldn't  be  any  other  way.  The 
revelations  describing  the  duties  of  the 
priesthood  is  directed  to  all  of  us,  and 
again  in  Section  38  of  the  Doctrine  and 
Covenants  we  read,  "I  give  unto  you  a 
commandment,  that  every  man,  both 
elder,  priest,  teacher,  and  also  member, 
go  to  with  his  might,  with  the  labor  of 
his  hands,  to  prepare  and  accomplish 
the  things  which  I  have  commanded. 

"And  let  your  preaching  be  the  warn- 
ing voice,  every  man  to  his  neighbor, 
in  mildness  and  in  meekness."  (D.  &  C. 
38:40-41.) 

It  is  interesting  to  read  President 
Joseph  F.  Smith's  statement  from  this 
pulpit  nearly  50  years  ago.  "I  am  going 
on  76,  and  I  believe  I  am  older  than 
several  of  these  good  men  who  think 
they  have  graduated  from  the  duties  of 
the  Lesser  Priesthood,  and  I  want  to 
tell  them  that  we  are  not  too  old  to 
act  as  teachers — not  one  of  us,"  said 
President  Smith.  There  will  never  come 
a  time  to  those  who  hold  the  Priesthood 
in  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter- 
day  Saints  when  men  can  say  of  them- 
selves that  they  have  done  enough.  We 
have  our  faithful  examples  throughout 


the  Church.  The  two  brethren  in  their 
nineties  who  compiled  a  record  of  150 
years  of  ward  teaching  between  them. 
This  brother  in  Ogden  with  56  years  of 
ward  teaching,  and  a  perfect  record  for 
all  that  time,  and  then  he  became  ill 
and  had  to  undergo  surgery,  and  during 
the  month  of  his  convalescence  he  tried 
to  get  out  and  found  that  he  was  too 
weak,  so  his  people  in  his  district,  hear- 
ing about  his  condition,  came  to  his 
home  one  by  one  where  the  teaching 
was  completed. 

Of  course,  the  ward  teacher  will  visit 
every  home  in  his  district  monthly.  He 
will  attend  his  report  meeting  and  make 
an  accurate  report  to  his  district  super- 
visor, but  this  is  only  the  beginning. 
This  is  the  letter  of  the  law.  The  con- 
scientious ward  teacher  will  use  the  visit 
as  a  springboard  into  the  lives  of  people. 
The  ward  teacher  shares  with  the  bishop 
the  responsibility  for  the  temporal  and 
spiritual  welfare  of  the  ward  members. 
The  ward  teacher's  responsibility  only 
begins  with  this  brief  monthly  visit 
which  we  report  for  the  sake  of  the 
statistics.  The  responsibility  of  the 
Priesthood  of  the  ward  extends  to  every 
family,  active  or  inactive,  and  this  is 
one  time  when  we  must  take  the  pro- 
gram to  the  members.  This  includes 
over  100,000  families,  where  the  father 
is  either  a  Senior  member  or  unordained. 
With  only  a  third  of  our  members  in 
Sacrament  Meeting,  another  third  who 
probably  never  get  to  Sacrament  Meet- 
ing, we  can  see  the  responsibility  we 
have  to  expose  this  large  body  of  Latter- 
day  Saints  to  the  gospel  at  least  once 
a  month. 

The  ward  teacher  accepts  each  in- 
active family  as  a  personal  challenge. 
If  some  member  of  one  of  his  families  is 
working  in  his  yard  on  Sunday,  violat- 
ing the  Word  of  Wisdom,  gambling,  or 
using  profane  language,  he  realizes  that 
it  is  "the  teacher's  duty  to  watch  over 
the  Church  always,  be  with  and 
strengthen  them  and  see  that  there  is 
no  iniquity  in  the  Church."  We  send 
missionaries  around  the  world  to  find 
investigators  and  convert  them.  The 
ward  teacher's  task  is  to  keep  them  con- 
verted and  reconvert  them  when  they 
fall  away. 

President  McKay  has  frequently  re- 
ferred to  ward  teachers  as  stewards,  with 


80 

Saturday,  October  10 

their  stewardship  extending  over  every 
family  that  lives  in  the  ward.  One  of 
the  opportunities  of  the  ward  teacher  is 
found  in  locating  and  visiting  new  fam- 
ilies that  move  into  the  ward.  If  a  warm, 
friendly  contact  can  be  made  in  time, 
this  may  be  all  that  is  necessary  to  bring 
a  careless,  indifferent  family  back  into 
full  Church  activity,  and  if  we  neglect 
to  make  an  immediate  contact  with  our 
new  neighbors,  the  opposite  may  very 
well  be  true. 

I  lived  in  a  ward  once  where  the 
teachers  failed  for  over  three  months  to 
visit  an  inactive  family  who  had  moved 
across  the  street  from  the  meeting  house. 
The  bishop  received  a  call  from  the 
hospital  and  arrived  just  in  time  to 
spend  a  few  moments  with  an  elderly 
lady  before  she  passed  away.  Then  the 
tragic  story  unfolded.  A  few  days  after 
a  young  couple  had  purchased  their  new 
home,  her  mother  came  to  visit  with 
them  and  took  seriously  ill.  Of  course 
the  daughter  should  have  notified  the 
bishop,  which  she  did  not. 

Here  was  a  woman  who  had  been 
active  all  her  life,  married  in  the  tem- 
ple, a  widow  with  a  large  family,  most 
of  them  living  on  the  Coast,  spending 
the  last  12,  lonely  unhappy  weeks  of 
her  life  across  the  street  from  our  meet- 
ing house,  and  we  ward  teachers  failed 
to  find  her.  We  failed  in  our  steward- 
ship because  we  were  too  busy  to  find 
out  who  lived  in  that  new  house  on  the 
corner. 

Incidentally,  our  ward  led  the  stake  on 
the  ward  teaching  report  that  month, 
but  this  was  small  comfort  to  a  bishop- 
ric and  a  ward  teaching  committee  who 
were  tormented  by  the  memory  of  this 
little  mother  in  her  last  illness,  unable 
to  even  be  administered  to  by  the  Priest- 
hood. I  guess  we  have  all  heard  the 
story  of  the  Lamanite  bishop  in  South- 
ern Utah  who  complained  that  there  is 
too  much  100  percent  and  not  enough 
ward  teaching. 

We  know  of  a  former  stake  president 
who  describes  his  ward  teaching  assign- 
ment as  "the  most  challenging  responsi- 
bility I  ever  had."  He  spends  one  evening 
each  month  with  his  junior  companion 
preparing  the  lesson  that  they  will  de- 
liver to  the  families  in  their  district, 
and  during  this  hour  of  preparation 
they  pray  for  direction  and  inspiration 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


Second  Day 

that  they  might  know  the  solutions  to 
the  problems  of  the  families  within  their 
district.  They  go  to  the  roll  and  rec- 
ord book  and  look  up  the  birth  dates 
of  every  member  in  each  family.  They 
want  to  know  if  there  are  children  who 
are  ready  to  be  baptized  or  ordained  to 
the  Priesthood,  or  graduated  from  the 
Auxiliaries.  The  president  says  he  ap- 
preciates having  a  young  man  as  a  com- 
panion because  he  knows  more  about 
boys  and  girls  his  own  age  and  their 
problems,  and  the  young  man's  counsel 
is  respected  and  appreciated. 

Finally,  in  this  hour  of  planning  and 
preparation  which  precedes  their  visits, 
they  decide  who  will  conduct  the  dis- 
cussion and  how  the  lessons  will  be 
presented  to  each  particular  family. 
Then  they  go  forth,  prepared  to  promote 
the  spirit  of  good  will,  to  meet  the 
criticisms  of  those  who  find  fault,  to 
defend  the  Church,  uphold  its  doctrines, 
and  support  its  leaders,  to  encourage 
those  who  are  offended  or  weak  in  the 
faith,  to  comfort  those  who  mourn  or 
have  sorrow,  and  deliver  a  message  of 
good  cheer  to  the  discouraged,  the  un- 
fortunate, the  aged  and  the  shut-in,  and 
if  appropriate  they  will  teach  their  fam- 
ilies to  pray  and  leave  their  blessings 
in  the  homes  by  praying  with  them. 

Elder  Mark  E.  Petersen  has  warned 
us  to  follow  the  message,  to  teach  the 
simple  principles  of  the  gospel.  He  tells 
us  to  avoid  advancing  new  doctrines,  new 
interpretations,  discussing  new  theories. 
May  I  quote  one  paragraph  from  his 
remarks. 

"Most  of  our  teachers  are  wonderful. 
They  teach  the  truth.  They  bring  about 
conversions  to  minds  and  hearts  of  those 
who  listen  to  them,  but  there  are  those 
few  teachers  who  sow  seeds  of  doubt 
by  speculating  in  unsound  doctrine,  and 
as  they  do  they  'soften  up,'  to  use  the 
army  expression,  some  of  their  hearers 
who  might  later  be  taken  over  by  the 
apostate  teachers  who  come  among  us." 

It  was  two  days  before  Christmas, 
December  23,  1949.  I  lived  in  a  ward 
with  600  members  which  covered  most 
of  the  downtown  area  and  several  resi- 
dential sections  in  a  large  city  on  the 
West  Coast.  It  was  a  transient  ward, 
with  over  ten  percent  of  our  members 
turning  over  every  month,  and  so  the 
ward  teacher  was  indispensable.   It  was 


BISHOP  RALPH  ].  HILL 


81 


after  10  p.m.  when  the  ward  teacher 
called  the  home  of  the  bishop  and  sug- 
gested that  he  look  in  on  one  of  his 
families. 

Early  the  next  morning  I  called  at  the 
home  with  the  senior  companion.  The 
father — we  will  call  him  Joseph  Hunt, 
had  injured  his  back  and  was  unem- 
ployed. We  met  the  mother  and  three 
little  girls.  There  was  no  sign  of  Christ- 
mas, but  plenty  of  evidence  that  Brother 
Hunt's  paychecks  had  stopped  several 
weeks  before.  Although  I  was  not  ac- 
quainted with  the  family,  we  knew  from 
the  green  card  that  he  was  a  bricklayer 
by  trade.  I  was  inspired  to  suggest  to 
Brother  Hunt  that  we  had  a  problem 
in  the  Church  where  he  could  be  help- 
ful. A  large  room  in  the  basement 
with  the  furnace  located  in  one  end 
was  being  used  by  the  MIA  as  a  storage 
room.  There  were  stage  properties, 
scenery,  and  athletic  equipment,  creat- 
ing a  fire  hazard  which  was  worrying 
the  bishopric. 

I  explained  that  we  had  money  to 
buy  the  blocks,  but  no  money  to  pay  for 
the  labor  for  building  a  wall.  Of  course, 
Brother  Hunt  agreed  that  he  was'  anxious 
to  be  helpful,  so  we  went  to  the  Church 
where  my  first  act  was  to  call  the  Relief 
Society  president.  She  completed  her 
survey  of  the  family's  needs  while  we 
made  plans  to  build  a  wall  that  would 
separate  the  storage  room  from  the 
furnace  room. 

That  evening  Santa  Claus  came  to  the 
Joseph  P.  Hunt  family  on  Queen  Anne 
Hill.  The  bishopric  brought  the  food 
and  clothing  from  the  storehouse.  The 
ward  teachers  had  taken  the  responsi- 
bility for  the  tree  and  the  presents  and 
goodies  to  fill  the  stockings,  and  during 
the  Christmas  Holidays  the  wall  was 
completed  by  Brother  Hunt,  and  it  stands 
today  as  a  monument  to  a  pair  of  ward 
teachers  who  cared  enough  to  go  out 
two  days  before  Christmas  and  watch 
over  the  Church  always. 

I  have  always  felt  that  the  ward 
teaching  assignment  carries  with  it  a 
responsibility  to  make  friends  of  the 
people  who  are  assigned  to  us,  to  demon- 
strate our  love  for  them  by  being  in- 
terested in  them,  and  this  includes  every 
member  of  every  family  in  our  report 
book.  Please  excuse  a  personal  refer- 
ence, but  I  love  to  teach  in  homes  where 


there  are  little  children.  You  see,  in 
our  home,  the  youngsters'  favorite  stories 
have  been  based  on  the  experiences  of  a 
little  pioneer  kitten,  whose  family  lived 
in  Kirtland  and  Nauvoo.  He  crossed 
the  plains  and  finally  helped  settle  a 
little  community  in  Cache  Valley,  where 
their  daddy  was  born.  Through  the 
experience  of  this  pioneer  kitten,  we  have 
met  the  prophets,  we  have  mourned 
with  the  Saints  at  Winter  Quarters,  and 
fought  the  crickets  and  fed  the  Indians. 

And  over  the  years  we  have  shared  our 
pioneer  stories  with  the  families  in  our 
district.  There  are  very  few  ward 
teaching  lessons  that  will  not  become 
interesting  and  understandable  to  a 
child  when  seen  through  the  eyes  of  a 
pioneer  kitten,  and  I  have  been  grateful 
that  with  these  stories  I  have  been  able 
to  make  friends  of  the  children  in  my 
district  and  in  my  ward. 

Our  responsibility  is  to  teach  all  of 
the  family.  Let  us  find  some  way  to 
make  our  message  interesting  to  these 
little  folks.  We  must  love  them  and 
make  them  our  friends.  Stevenson 
could  have  been  writing  about  the  ward 
teachers  when  he  said,  "So  long  as  we 
love  we  serve.  So  long  as  we  are  loved 
by  others  I  would  almost  say  we  are 
indispensable,  and  no  man  is  useless 
while  he  has  a  friend." 

Let  us  use  our  youth  and  our  energy, 
our  enthusiasm  and  our  strength,  in 
obeying  this  commandment  to  watch 
over  the  Church  always.  Brethren,  we 
are  our  brother's  keeper.  We  assumed 
this  assignment  when  we  accepted  our 
ordination  in  the  Priesthood.  It  is  a 
responsibility  that  we  cannot  delegate 
or  avoid.  It  is  my  testimony  to  you 
that  this  gospel  is  true,  that  we  progress 
only  as  we  serve,  and  that  the  ward 
teaching  program  of  this  Church  offers 
man  one  of  his  greatest  opportunities 
to  be  useful  to  his  fellowman. 

In  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ.  Amen. 

President  David  O.  McKay: 

Thank  you,  brethren,  for  your  re- 
sponses. The  congregation  will  now 
sing,  with  Elder  Richard  P.  Condie 
conducting,  "Do  What  Is  Right." 


The  Congregation  and  the  Men's 
Chorus  sang  the  hymn,  "Do  What  Is 
Right." 


82 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


Saturday,  October  10 

President  David  O.  McKay: 

Our  next  speaker  is  Brother  Henry  D. 
Moyle,  second  counselor  in  the  First 
Presidency.  I  think  we  are  fortunate  in 
having  Brother  Moyle  in  the  First  Presi- 
dency of  the  Church.    When  we  last 


Second  Day 

met,  Brother  Stephen  L  Richards  was 
with  us,  and  you  will  remember  the 
messages  he  used  to  give.  He  is  listen- 
ing in  tonight,  undoubtedly,  joining  in 
our  appreciation  of  the  instructions  that 
are  given  by  this  able  counselor,  Henry 
D.  Moyle.   The  time  is  his. 


PRESIDENT  HENRY  D.  MOYLE 

Second  Counselor  in  the  First  Presidency 


My  brethren,  this  is  a  solemn  moment 
for  me,  I  can  assure  you.  I  have  been 
coming  to  these  Saturday  evening  Priest- 
hood meetings  for  a  good  many  years — 
all  my  life — since  I  was  ordained  a  dea- 
con. I  was  here  when  President  McKay 
was  called  into  the  Twelve.  I  was  here 
when  President  Richards  was  called  into 
the  Twelve.  I  have  come  here  many 
times  with  my  father.  I  have  realized 
that  the  instructions  that  were  given  to 
the  Priesthood  by  the  Brethren  on  these 
occasions  were  equally  good  for  father 
and  for  son. 

This  is  the  first  call  that  has  come  to 
me  to  address  this  great  body  of  Priest- 
hood, and  I  assure  you  that  if  I  am 
able  to  give  you  any  thoughts  this 
evening  that  will  be  beneficial  to  the 
work,  we  shall  have  to  ascribe  the  honor 
to  our  Father  in  Heaven.  I  am  sure  we 
must  all  of  us  feel  dependent  upon  him 
for  the  guidance,  the  direction  and  the 
inspiration  essential  for  each  one  of  us 
to  have  ever  present  in  order  to  fulfill 
the  calls  which  are  made  of  us  by  those 
who  preside  over  us  in  the  Priesthood. 

I  have  a  deep  sense  of  appreciation 
for  the  work  of  these  Brethren  who  have 
preceded  me,  and  especially  President 
Stephen  L  Richards.  For  many  years 
past  it  has  been  my  great  pleasure  to 
be  here  and  to  expect  to  hear  words  of 
inspiration  and  wisdom  from  him,  and 
I  have  never  been  disappointed.  We 
miss  President  Richards,  and  we  con- 
tinue, as  we  undertake  to  carry  on,  to 
remember  his  beloved  wife  and  all  of 
his  posterity,  and  pray  that  the  blessings 
of  the  Almighty  may  continue  to  be 
with  them,  to  guide  and  direct  them 
in  the  footsteps  of  their  illustrious  father 
and  husband. 

We  do  not  need,  however,  to  eulogize 
men  who  perform  their  duties  and  re- 
sponsibilities in  the  Priesthood.  Cer- 


tainly that  which  we  undertake  to  do 
is  not  done  for  the  purpose  of  being 
praised  of  men.  It  is  to  give  us  that 
solemn  deep-seated  satisfaction  in  our 
hearts  that  we  in  some  small  way  have 
helped  to  establish  the  Kingdom  of  our 
Heavenly  Father  here  upon  this  earth 
in  these  latter  days.  To  this  purpose 
we  dedicate  our  lives  and  all  that  we 
have  and  are,  and  our  constant  prayer 
to  our  Heavenly  Father  is  that  we  might 
have  added  strength,  added  capacity, 
added  capability  to  accomplish  more 
and  more  in  his  service.  If  I  have  any 
complaint  tonight  it  would  be  that  the 
days  are  not  long  enough.  Some  of  you 
were  here  last  night  when  I  was  sug- 
gesting to  the  bishops  that  we  ought  to 
increase  the  hours  of  proselyting  of  our 
stake  missionaries,  and  I  said  I  thought 
that  we  ought  to  strike  an  average  of 
about  40  hours  a  week.  I,  of  course, 
misspoke  myself — I  meant  40  hours  a 
month. 

But  I  have  been  thinking  about  that 
incident,  and  I  know  many  men  in  this 
Church  whose  time  would  permit  them 
to  live  up  to  the  ideal  which  I  spoke 
unintentionally.  We  have  these — I  was 
going  to  say,  eight-hour  days — but  I 
suppose  nobody  works  eight  hours  any 
more,  do  they?  Six  times  eight  would 
be  forty-eight,  and  it  seems  to  me  I 
heard  something  about  a  40  hour  week, 
and  sometimes  weeks  that  call  for  lesser 
labor. 

It  may  not  be  entirely  a  coincidence 
that  these  shrinking  hours  of  labor  re- 
quired of  us  in  our  daily  employment 
should  come  about  coincident  with 
the  tremendous  need  that  we  have  in  the 
Church  for  work  in  the  service  of  the 
Master.  This  subject  of  ward  teaching 
that  Bishop  Cheever  and  Bishop  Hill 
have  so  beautifully  discussed  with  us 
tonight  has  at  its  root  the  performance 


PRESIDENT  HENRY  D.  MOYLE 


83 


of  a  service,  a  labor.  It  is  time-consum- 
ing, but  how  tremendously  rewarding 
to  know  that  every  month  of  our  lives 
we  have  contacted  somebody,  made  their 
lives  happier  and  better  than  they  other- 
wise would  have  been. 

Now,  I  know  one  of  these  bishops 
pretty  well.  He  had  no  more  been  called 
into  the  bishopric  than  he  said  to  him- 
self and  to  me  and  to  some  others  in 
the  ward,  "I  wonder  if  it's  necessary  for 
a  young  man  to  ever  reach  the  age  of 
20  and  not  be  worthy  and  ready  and 
willing  to  go  on  a  mission?"  It  is  little 
wonder  that  he  has  ward  teaching  in 
his  heart,  because  he  could  not  have 
hoped  for  such  a  result  had  the  homes 
in  which  those  young  men  lived  not 
been  visited  regularly. 

Sometimes  I  get  off  on  my  statistics, 
but  my  best  knowledge  and  understand- 
ing is  that  since  he  became  bishop  there 
hasn't  been  a  single  boy  escape,  and  if 
there  have,  perchance,  been  one  or  two 
that  I  do  not  know  about,  I  still  say  the 
record  is  miraculous,  and  it  comes  about 
as  a  result  of  work.  Everyone  of  those 
young  men  who  have  gone  into  the 
mission  field — and  I  can  speak  with 
some  feeling  about  this  subject  because 
one  of  them  is  my  own  son — loves  his 
bishop,  and  when  they  come  back  from 
their  mission  fields,  as  they  do  nearly 
every  month,  they  go  to  their  bishop 
and  tell  him  they  are  ready  to  go  to 
work  in  the  ward. 

I  tell  you,  brethren,  this  ward  teach- 
ing is  basically  fundamental.  It  is  the 
foundation,  so  to  speak,  upon  which  we 
can  build  in  any  of  our  Church  activi- 
ties, to  accomplish  any  results  that  are 
desirable.  Now,  we  have  in  the  Church 
today  about  one  out  of  every  four  young 
men  who  reach  the  age  of  20  who  go 
on  a  mission.  I  want  you  bishops  to 
ask  yourselves  this  question:  "Where 
have  we  failed  with  reference  to  the 
other  three?"  That  was  the  plea  that 
Bishop  Isaacson  made  to  you  last  night 
with  reference  to  your  Senior  Aaronic 
Priesthood  Group.  I  am  sure  that  a 
bishop  should  either  have  that  young 
man  ready  to  go  on  a  mission,  or  have 
the  satisfaction  of  knowing  that  he  had 
exhausted  the  resources  at  his  command 
in  attempting  to  qualify  him  therefor. 

We  have  a  tremendous  need  for  mis- 
sionaries, and  I  have  a  feeling,  brethren, 


that  if  we  started  to  exercise  our  Priest- 
hood in  our  relationships  with  our 
families,  our  intimate  relationships, 
early  in  our  family  history,  that  our 
young  men  would  have  become  so  well 
assured  of  the  power  and  the  efficacy  of 
the  Priesthood  held  by  their  fathers, 
that  it  would  become  in  very  deed  their 
principal  ambition  in  life  to  receive  that 
same  Priesthood,  and  I  cannot  think  of 
any  greater  satisfaction  that  comes  into 
the  life  of  a  righteous  father  than  to 
himself  be  worthy  when  the  time  ar- 
rives, and  his  son  has  qualified  himself 
to  receive  either  the  Lesser  or  the  Higher 
Priesthood,  to  confer  that  Priesthood 
upon  him  under  the  direction  of  his 
bishop  or  his  stake  president. 

I  want  to  leave  this  thought  with  you 
this  evening,  brethren.  I  do  not  be- 
lieve that  any  one  of  us  who  are  re- 
cipients of  the  Priesthood  ever  exercise 
that  Priesthood  in  the  performance  of 
a  single  ordinance,  the  performance  of  a 
single  act,  in  which  we  invoke  the  power 
of  our  Priesthood,  without  having  in  our 
hearts  simultaneously  therewith  a  deep- 
seated,  genuine,  true  testimony  of  the 
divinity  of  the  work  in  which  we  are 
engaged,  and  a  knowledge  that  God  has 
in  very  deed  restored  his  Priesthood  to 
the  earth,  and  that  we  have  been  the 
beneficiaries  of  that  great  gift. 

My  thoughts  go  back  at  the  moment 
to  when  I  was  a  little  boy.  I  was  aw- 
fully sick,  I  thought.  I  do  not  think 
my  sickness  was  very  serious.  I  may 
have  had  a  bad  case  of  measles  or  some- 
thing like  that,  but  I  was  sick,  and  I 
was  miserable,  and  my  father  had  lived 
so  closely  to  me  that  I  was  just  as  cer- 
tain as  that  I  lived  that  when  my  father 
came  home  and  I  asked  him  to  admin- 
ister to  me  that  I  would  be  healed.  Do 
you  think  a  boy  can  go  through  that 
kind  of  an  experience  with  his  father 
and  have  his  prayers  answered,  have 
his  faith  justified,  and  not  love  that 
father?  And  even  more  important  than 
that,  not  have  a  keen  realization  and 
appreciation  of  the  power  that  his  father 
has  by  virtue  of  the  Priesthood  which 
has  been  conferred  upon  him?  I  am 
sure  that  from  that  moment  on  I  lived, 
as  far  as  I  can  review  my  life  in  my  own 
mind,  to  receive  that  same  Priesthood, 
to  perform  that  same  service  in  behalf 
of  my  family  when  I  might  be  blessed 


84 

Saturday,  Octoher  10 

with  one,  and  I  never  cease  to  be  grate- 
ful to  the  Lord  for  the  almost  innumer- 
able instances  when  I  have  had  the 
privilege  of  exercising  my  Priesthood 
outside  the  family  circle  in  behalf  of 
my  brethren  and  sisters  throughout  the 
Church,  and  being  absolutely  con- 
scious when  I  laid  my  hands  upon  their 
heads  that  there  was  a  power  there 
making  itself  manifest  in  my  ministry, 
that  would  bring  about  the  purposes  of 
our  Heavenly  Father  here  upon  this 
earth. 

And  so  I  say  if  we  exercise  this  Priest- 
hood in  behalf  of  our  families  we  cannot 
help  but  have  our  families  grow  up  to 
follow  in  our  footsteps,  and  what  father 
is  there  among  us  that  would  not  have 
his  son  gon  on  a  mission.  I  have  made 
this  statement  many  times  in  the  Church 
in  many  of  your  stakes — I  have  never 
yet  been  contradicted,  I  have  never  yet 
had  a  case  brought  to  my  attention  that 
would  disprove  what  I  have  said — and 
that  is  this:  that  the  Lord  has  so  blessed 
and  prospered  the  Saints  that  today  we 
are  well  enough  off  to  send  anybody  on 
a  mission  that  is  worthy  and  willing 
to  go,  and  supplement  whenever  neces- 
sary whatever  means  he  and  his  family 
may  have  to  keep  him  on  the  mission. 
We  are  not  having  missionaries  come 
home  in  the  middle  of  their  missionary 
terms  because  their  families  have  run 
out  of  finances. 

Now  the  Lord  has  blessed  us  for  a 
purpose.  His  blessings  have  not  been 
showered  upon  us  for  the  purpose  of  our 
following  the  ways  of  the  world.  Why 
do  you  think  we  pay  our  tithing?  Isn't 
it  to  put  our  hearts  in  tune  with  the 
Spirit  of  our  Heavenly  Father,  to  enter 
into  a  partnership  with  him  and  dedi- 
cate the  other  nine  tenths  to  the  best 
possible  use  available  to  bring  about 
his  purposes,  first  with  the  family,  and 
second,  with  the  ward. 

I  am  sure  the  generosity  of  the  Latter- 
day  Saints  knows  no  bounds.  Some  peo- 
ple say  that  there  are  too  many  calls 
made  upon  us,  but  I  never  yet,  and  I 
think  I  can  truthfully  say  this,  in  all  my 
experience  in  the  Church  heard  anyone 
complain  about  the  cost  of  a  mission. 
There  is  something  about  a  mission. 
Sometimes  I  think  it  affects  the  family 
at  home  even  more  than  the  missionary 
himself. 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


Second  Day 

I  remember  one  night  many  years  ago 
in  Charleston,  West  Virginia.  We  had 
a  little  group  of  missionaries  there  as 
we  toured  the  East  Central  States  Mis- 
sion— about  20,  as  I  recall  it — and  one 
elder  got  up  and  said:  "Brother  Moyle, 
I  have  only  been  on  a  mission  for  a 
year,  but  every  day  that  I  am  on  my 
mission  I  have  a  stronger  assurance  come 
to  me  that  as  a  result  of  my  mission  I 
will  bring  my  father  into  the  Church. 
Do  you  know  why  I  want  to  bring  my 
father  into  the  Church?  It  is  because 
I  have  seen  and  heard  my  mother  pray 
for  that  event  to  happen  as  far  back  as 
I  can  remember.  I  just  have  a  feeling 
that  if,  through  my  diligence,  my  effort, 
my  worthiness  as  a  missionary,  spending 
my  two  years  in  this  mission,  I  can  ac- 
complish that  result,  I  will  have  been 
able  to  give  my  mother  that  which  she 
wants  above  all  else  on  earth,  and  inci- 
dentally, make  it  possible  for  me  to  be 
sealed  to  my  father  and  my  mother, 
and  give  to  them  the  benefits  of  the 
Holy  Endowment." 

I  would  like  to  charge,  if  it  were  pos- 
sible, every  Latter-day  Saint  home  to 
produce  a  missionary.  It  would  be  easy 
to  divide  the  homes  in  the  Church  be- 
tween those  who  are  presided  over  by 
returned  missionaries,  and  those  who 
are  presided  over  by  men  who  have  not 
filled  that  call.  I  am  sure  that  the  latter 
group  have  always  been  anxious,  always 
just  a  little  disappointed  that  they  did 
not  go  on  a  mission  themselves.  There 
need  be  no  disappointment  in  the  heart 
of  any  Latter-day  Saint  father,  whether 
he  has  been  on  a  mission  or  not.  If 
I  were  the  head  of  a  family  and  I  had  not 
been  on  a  mission,  I  would  devote  myself 
to  receive  the  blessing  of  a  mission 
through  my  son. 

I  want  to  say  to  you  tonight,  brethren, 
in  all  solemnity,  that  we  can  receive 
those  blessings  if  we  rear  our  children  to 
qualify  for  that  great  service,  the  great- 
est service  of  all.  That  is  the  service  to 
which  the  Twelve  have  been  called,  and 
all  their  Assistants  and  Associates.  It 
is  the  prime  charge  that  the  Savior  gave 
his  Apostles  of  old — to  go  into  the  world 
and  to  preach  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ, 
the  gospel  of  life  and  salvation,  to  all 
the  children  of  our  Heavenly  Father 
here  upon  this  earth. 

I  know  that  God  lives.   I  know  that 


PRESIDENT  }.  REUBEN  CLARK,  ]R. 


85 


the  power  of  the  Priesthood  is  with  us, 
and  I  know  that  there  is  vested  in  Presi- 
dent David  O.  McKay  all  the  keys  of 
the  Priesthood.  There  has  flowed  into 
this  dispensation  all  of  the  power  and 
all  of  the  authority  and  all  of  the  keys 
and  blessings  of  all  other  dispensations. 
That  we  know.  And  I  am  sure  that  you 
brethren  will  have  difficulty  in  realizing 
how  deep-seated  my  gratitude  to  my 
Heavenly  Father  is  for  this  testimony, 
this  knowledge  that  God  lives,  and  that 
he  sustains  his  mouthpiece  upon  this 
earth  with  power  and  authority  to  speak 
in  his  name  every  day  of  his  life. 

I  do  not  know  what  in  the  world  I 
could  have  done  to  be  worthy  of  this 
close  association  with  these  men  whom 
I  revere  and  idolize.  For  53  years 
President  McKay  has  been  as  dedicated 
a  man  as  ever  lived  upon  the  face  of 
the  earth  to  the  tasks  which  have  been 
his,  and  now  I  have  the  privilege  of 
undertaking  in  my  weak  way  to  be  of 
some  assistance  to  him. 

President  Clark  and  I  have  been 
thrown  together  in  our  Welfare  work 
these  many  years,  and  I  have  learned  to 
love  and  respect  and  revere  him.  I  do 
hope  and  pray  that  the  Lord  will  bless 
me  that  my  labors  may  in  some  small 
measure  reflect  the  deep  sense  of  grati- 
tude I  have  in  my  heart  for  this  call, 
and  make  me  capable,  qualified,  worthy, 
to  continue  to  associate  and  to  counsel 
with  you,  my  beloved  brethren.  I  love 
the  brethren  of  this  Church.    I  am  so 


grateful  that  I  have  had  these  years  of 
opportunity  to  associate  with  President 
Joseph  Fielding  Smith  and  the  members 
of  the  Twelve.  It  was  brought  rather 
sternly  to  my  realization  that  I  was  not 
a  member  of  the  Twelve  any  more  when 
my  beloved  friend,  Howard  W.  Hunter, 
was  called  to  take  my  place  in  the 
Twelve.  I  love  and  respect  and  revere 
him,  as  I  do  all  of  the  members  of  the 
Twelve,  and  my  prayer  daily  is  that  with 
this  call  which  has  come  to  me,  the 
Lord  may  make  it  possible  for  me  to 
stand  even  closer  and  be  more  intimate, 
and  draw  greater  strength  from  these 
Brethren  who  have  sustained  and  up- 
held me  all  these  years  as  a  member  of 
their  Quorum. 

Now,  I  do  invoke  the  blessings  of  the 
Lord  upon  us  all,  and  pray  that  we 
will  constantly  unite  our  faith  and 
prayers  that  the  Lord  will  bless  and 
sustain  President  McKay  and  President 
Clark  with  the  health  and  strength  and 
vigor  and  vitality  of  body  and  of  mind 
and  of  spirit,  which  will  make  it  pos- 
sible for  them  day  to  day  to  fulfill  the 
righteous  desires  that  they  have  in  their 
hearts,  the  desires  that  they  have  to 
carry  this  work  on,  and  this  I  pray  hum- 
bly in  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
Amen. 

President  David  O.  McKay: 

President  J.  Reuben  Clark,  Jr.  will 
now  address  us. 


PRESIDENT  J.  REUBEN  CLARK,  JR. 

First  Counselor  in  the  First  Presidency 


My  brethren,  holders  of  the  Holy 
Priesthood  after  the  Order  of  the  Son 
of  God:  I  address  you  as  such,  I  wish  to 
speak  to  you  as  such.  I  have  enjoyed 
this  meeting.  I  have  enjoyed  the  breth- 
ren, the  bishops  who  spoke  about  ward 
teaching.  I  have  enjoyed,  of  course, 
Brother  Moyle.  I  paid  a  brief  compli- 
ment to  him  this  morning  and  likewise 
to  President  Richards.  I  shall  have  to 
be  brief,  because  you  want  to  hear 
President  McKay  and  so  do  I.  (laughter) 
"The  audience  only  laughs  when  the 
king  speaks!" 

But  there  are  one  or  two  points  that 
I  would  hope  briefly  to  make  to  you  in 


the  very  few  minutes  that  I  wish  to 
speak. 

There  is  a  saying  that  "all  roads  lead 
to  Rome."  As  Brother  Christiansen 
pointed  out  today  and  made  suggestions, 
too  many  of  us  seem  sometimes  to  offer 
this  excuse  or  that  excuse  or  the  other 
excuse  for  not  obeying  the  command- 
ments of  the  Lord  because  we  will  all 
go  to  the  same  place,  and  we  know  that 
that  view  is  held  by  many  of  the  sec- 
tarian churches  of  the  world.  That,  so 
far  as  this  Priesthood  is  concerned,  is 
not  true,  it  is  an  apostate  principle. 

I  have  already  suggested  that  we  face 
perhaps  the  greatest  crisis  in  the  history 


86 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


Saturday,  October  10 

of  the  world.  These  are  the  "latter  days." 
I  have  already  suggested,  following  the 
excellent  address  of  President  McKay, 
that  the  Marxist  principles  and  policy 
wherever  found  look  to  the  temporal, 
not  to  the  spiritual.  They  exalt  the 
temporal;  they  belittle  the  spiritual. 

You  know,  I  find  no  place  in  the 
Scriptures,  the  New  Testament  and 
otherwise,  where  the  Lord  ever  prom- 
ised that  those  who  followed  him  would 
gain  wealth.  His  mission  was  to  the 
poor  and  the  lowly. 

Do  you  remember  the  first  great  mir- 
acle performed  by  the  old  Apostles?  It 
occurred  at  the  Gate  Beautiful.  There 
was  there  a  man  who  was  born  from  his 
mother's  womb  with  crippled  feet.  They 
brought  him  there  daily.  Peter  and 
John  were  going  in  and  as  they  went  by 
him,  lying  there  seeking  alms,  they 
looked  at  him  and  then  they  said  "Look 
on  us."  And  he  looked  at  them.  Then 
Peter  delivered  that  great  message  that 
brought  him  before  the  Sanhedrin,  and 
performed  the  first  miracle: 

"Silver  and  gold  have  I  none;  but  such 
as  I  have  give  I  thee:  In  the  name  of 
Jesus  Christ  of  Nazareth  rise  up  and 
walk." 

He  reached  his  hand,  and  took  him. 
The  man  arose.  His  ankles  straightened. 
He  leaped  for  joy. 

Now,  I  want  to  talk  a  little,  just  a 
minute  more,  to  you  about  that. 

I  do  not  wish  to  be  a  croaking  raven. 
But  I  am  so  disturbed  by  the  revelations 
recently  made  by  this  man  Khrushchev 
that  a  deliberate  attempt  will  be  made 
to  conquer  the  Western  world,  the 
Christian  world;  first,  by  peaceful  means. 
But  if  they  can  get  us  for  peace,  and 
then  for  retiring  from  Europe,  demobil- 
ization, largely,  the  destruction  of  our 
installations  for  protection,  then  you 
will  see  what  he  will  do. 

Now,  brethren,  I  want  to  urge  on  you 
this  consideration.  I  have  had  some 
time  to  reflect  recently,  and  my  condi- 
tion has  been  such  as  to  bring  home  to 
me  how  terrible  would  be  the  condition 
if  I  had  been  deprived  of  my  daughters 
and  of  my  doctor,  and  the  saving  thing 
about  it  was  the  prayers  of  my  Brethren 
and  of  the  Church.  There  is  where  the 
healing  came  from. 

Visualize,  if  you  will,  for  a  moment 
what  would  be  the  condition  if  we  sud- 
denly had  a  bomb  landed  here,  many 


Second  Day 

wounded,  many  doctors  out,  perhaps  the 
hospitals  gone.  What  are  you  going 
to  do? 

"Silver  and  gold  have  I  none;  but 
such  as  I  have  give  I  thee:  In  the  name 
of  Jesus  Christ  of  Nazareth  rise  up  and 
walk." 

Brethren,  if  you  face  a  situation  where 
there  is  no  nursing  available,  no  doc- 
tors available,  only  the  Priesthood,  are 
you  going  to  be  living  so  that  you  can 
go  and  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ,  bless 
and  heal? 

I  was  reared  in  a  household  of  faith.  In 
my  father's  home  we  had  no  doctor  in 
the  town.  We  had  none  short  of  Salt 
Lake  City,  forty  miles  away.  My  father 
and  my  mother  reared  almost  entirely 
their  ten  children  without  a  doctor — 
time  and  time  again  pneumonia,  scarlet 
fever,  typhoid,  six  of  us  sick  at  one  time 
in  bed  in  the  same  room  with  diphtheria. 
And  what  did  they  do?  Father  and  the 
elders  went  to  the  Lord.  That  is  how 
we  lived. 

Read  what  happened  on  what  is 
called  the  Day  of  Miracles  on  the  banks 
of  the  Mississippi,  when  the  Prophet 
went  out  and  administered  here  and 
there  and  healed.  Joseph  sent  his 
handkerchief  as  Paul  of  old  sent  hand- 
kerchiefs and  aprons,  and,  their  faces 
being  wiped,  the  sick  were  healed. 

Now,  if  you  have  no  doctors,  no 
nurses,  none  but  you  and  the  Lord,  you 
Priesthood-bearers,  is  it  not  worth  living 
so  that  when  that  time  comes,  your 
prayers  will  be  heard,  and  your  sick 
healed? 

May  God  be  with  us  and  help  us  to 
live  as  the  Priesthood  should  live. 

I  conclude  by  bearing  my  testimony 
as  I  did  this  morning,  but  will  not  re- 
peat for  time,  save  to  say  that  I  know 
God  lives,  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ,  that 
Joseph  was  a  Prophet  through  whom 
came  the  Priesthood  and  the  Gospel, 
that  those  who  succeeded  him  have  had 
that  same  right  and  that  same  power 
held  today  by  President  David  O. 
McKay. 

God  give  us  all  this  testimony  and 
give  us  the  strength  to  live  so  that  if, 
when,  and  as  a  crisis  shall  come,  we  may 
be  a  Church,  a  community  of  doctors 
representing  the  Priesthood,  holding  the 
Priesthood  and  exercising  the  great  gift 
which  filled  the  work  of  Jesus,  I  humbly 
pray,  in  the  name  of  Jesus.  Amen. 


87 


PRESIDENT  DAVID  O.  McKAY 


This  is  an  historic  occasion.  The 
young  men  of  the  Aaronic  Priesthood  in 
attendance  will  remember  this,  as  we 
all  shall. 

We  have  just  received  a  report  of  the 
attendance  as  follows:  In  the  Salt  Lake 
Tabernacle,  7,563;  in  the  Assembly  Hall, 
Barratt  Hall,  and  grounds,  2,285;  in  the 
204  groups  reporting  in,  38,516;  making 
a  total  reported  to  this  moment  of 
48,364,  every  one  of  whom  holds  the 
Priesthood,  which  is  an  authorization  to 
represent  our  Father  in  Heaven  in  what- 
ever position  or  assignment  each  may  be 
placed,  and  to  do  it  authoritatively. 

It  is  a  humbling  experience,  even  to 
have  the  privilege  of  being  one  of  those 
48,000  men  of  the  Priesthood — a  power 
in  the  land  and  a  power  never  so  greatly 
needed  in  the  history  of  the  world  to 
thwart  the  plans  and  schemes  of  the 
Adversary  as  today.  God  grant  that  we 
may  have  wisdom  and  knowledge  and 
most  of  all,  divine  guidance  as  we  per- 
form our  duties  assigned  to  us. 

There  are  a  few  details  that  we  should 
like  to  mention,  and  ask  for  the  Bishops' 
cooperation  in  making  more  effective 
the  work. 

But  before  so  doing,  I  wish  to  say  a 
word  about  our  servicemen  mentioned 
in  the  beginning,  twenty-one  of  whom 
flew  in  to  attend  this  meeting  tonight. 
I  said  we  should  have  something  more 
to  say.  A  short  time  ago  we  received  a 
letter  from  a  group  of  service  boys,  a  part 
of  which  I  wish  to  read.  They  are  aboard 
the  United  States  steamship  "The  Pine 
Island." 

"On  behalf  of  the  group  aboard  the 
U.S.S.  Pine  Island  we  would  like  to 
take  this  time  to  write  to  you  with  hum- 
bleness and  sincerity  in  our  hearts.  .  .  . 

"We  a  few  of  the  Lord's  servants  striv- 
ing to  do  the  work  that  we  have  to  do 
before  the  second  coming  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ.  Through  your  words, 
guidance,  and  leadership  and  the  help 
of  our  Father  in  Heaven,  and  if  we  live 
worthy  we  will  be  able  to  do  this  work 
which  is  here  for  us  to  do.  .  .  . 

"We  are  now  touring  the  Pacific  Ocean 
for  six  months,  visiting  different  lands 
and  people.  We  learn  a  lot  of  the  ways 
of  other  people.  How  they  live  and 
what  they  do,  their  religion.    We  find 


out  personally  how  important  mission- 
ary work  really  is  and  how  much  has 
to  be  done  yet.  Most  of  these  people 
do  not  even  know  that  there  is  a  Father 
in  Heaven." 

"We  do  our  very  best,  especially  over 
here  to  set  examples  of  the  Church  and 
to  live  as  righteously  as  we  possibly 
can;  to  live  the  commandments  of  the 
Lord  and  the  teachings  of  our  Church; 
to  give  unto  all  of  those  desiring  to  at- 
tend our  meeting  of  worship,  to  let  them 
partake  of  the  spirit  and  blessings  we 
receive  at  our  little  group  meetings. 

"We  hope  that  we  have  not  kept  you 
from  some  important  task  with  the  time 
spent  reading  our  letter.  We  just  wanted 
to  write  to  you  to  let  you  know  that  we 
are  always  thinking  of  you  and  our 
prayers  are  with  you.  We  thank  you 
for  your  time.  May  God  bless  and  help 
you  in  all  things  you  are  in  need  of. 

Very  Humbly  Yours, 

(signed)  Edwin  E.  Bigler,  Elder 
L.  D.  S.  Group  Leader 
U.  S.  S.  Pine  Island 
(Pacific  Ocean) 
Elder  Danny  G.  Davis, 
Secretary" 

It  is  not  easy  for  the  boys  in  the  serv- 
ice to  live  up  to  the  ideals  of  the  Priest- 
hood, especially  if  they  have  been 
tempted  before  they  went  into  the  serv- 
ice. It  is  not  easy  for  the  Elders  who 
are  in  the  missionary  field,  either, 
especially  if  they  have  been  tempted 
before  they  go  into  the  mission  field, 
and  I  emphasize  that  exception. 

Young  men  and  young  women  who 
grow  up  through  their  teens  and  keep 
themselves  unspotted  from  the  world 
can  resist  temptation  in  the  field  and  in 
the  service,  or  wherever  they  are.  It 
is  not  difficult  when  they  meet  tempta- 
tion. 

But  some  of  our  young  men  and  our 
young  women  fail  to  live  up  to  the 
standards  of  the  Priesthood  and  they 
slip  and  fall.  They  ask  forgiveness  and 
go  into  the  field  and  are  tempted,  and 
they  are  tempted,  and  they  fall  again. 
It  is  just  as  necessary  for  young  men 
and  young  women  to  live  up  to  the 
principles  in  their  high  school  training 


88 

Saturday,  October  10 

here  at  home,  and  some  of  them  are 
narrow  in  their  training  and  teaching, 
as  it  is  for  them  to  keep  themselves  pure 
and  unspotted  when  they  go  into  the 
field. 

You  cannot  tamper  with  the  Evil  One. 
Resist  temptation,  resist  the  Devil  and 
he  will  flee  from  you. 

The  Savior  on  the  Mount  gave  us 
the  greatest  example  in  all  the  world 
and  the  48,000  men  tonight  must  ever 
have  him  in  mind  as  their  ideal.  Just 
after  the  Savior's  baptism,  he  was  led 
up  to  the  mount  that  is  known  now  as 
the  Mount  of  Temptation.  I  do  not 
know  whether  that  is  where  he  stood, 
where  he  fasted  for  forty  days,  or  not. 
But  it  was  on  some  mount  that  he 
went,  and  after  fasting  forty  days,  the 
Tempter  came  to  him,  so  we  are  told, 
and  as  the  Tempter  always  does,  he 
struck  at  him  in  what  the  Tempter 
thought  was  his  weakest  point. 

After  having  fasted,  the  Tempter 
thought  he  would  be  hungry,  and  the 
first  temptation,  you  will  remember, 
was,  "If,"  and  he  said  it  sarcastically, 
"If  thou  be  the  Son  of  God,"  referring 
to  the  testimony  of  the  Father  when  he 
said,  "This  is  my  beloved  Son," — "If 
thou  be  the  Son  of  God,  command  that 
these  stones  be  made  bread."  And  there 
is  a  stone  there  in  that  area  which  is 
not  unlike  a  Jewish  wheat-loaf,  so  that 
would  make  the  temptation  of  it  ap- 
peal all  the  stronger.  Christ's  answer 
was:  "Man  shall  not  live  by  bread  alone, 
but  by  every  word  that  proceedeth  out 
of  the  mouth  of  God."  (Matt.  4:3-4.) 

The  next  temptation  quoted  scripture 
also.  It  was  an  appeal  to  vanity,  an 
appeal  to  gain  ascendancy  over  our  fel- 
lows: "If  thou  be  the  Son  of  God,  cast 
thyself  down  ..."  (from  a  pinnacle  of 
the  temple)  ".  .  .  for  it  is  written  ..." 
(and  the  Devil  can  cite  scripture  for 
his  purpose)  ".  .  .  for  it  is  written,  He 
shall  give  his  angels  charge  concerning 
thee:  and  in  their  hands  they  shall  bear 
thee  up,  lest  at  any  time  thou  dash  thy 
foot  against  a  stone."  And  the  answer 
was,  "Thou  shalt  not  tempt  the  Lord 
thy  God."  (Matt.  4:6-7.) 

The  third  temptation  was  of  love,  of 
wealth  and  power.  The  tempter  took 
Jesus  to  a  high  mountain  and  showed 
him  the  things  of  the  world  and  the 
power  thereof.    He  was  not  sarcastic 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


Second  Day 

in  this  temptation.  He  was  pleading, 
for  the  resistance  of  the  Savior  had 
weakened  the  Tempter's  powers.  He 
showed  him  the  things  of  the  world. 
"All  these  things  will  I  give  thee,  if 
thou  wilt  fall  down  and  worship  me." 
Rising  in  the  majesty  of  his  divinity, 
Jesus  said:  "Get  thee  hence,  Satan:  for 
it  is  written,  Thou  shalt  worship  the 
Lord  thy  God,  and  him  only  shalt  thou 
serve."  And  the  Tempter  slunk  away; 
and  we  are  told  that  angels  came  and 
administered  to  the  Lord.  (Matt.  4:8-11.) 

There  is  your  story,  young  man.  Your 
weakest  point  will  be  the  point  at  which 
the  Devil  tries  to  tempt  you,  will  try 
to  win  you,  and  if  you  have  made  it 
weak  before  you  have  undertaken  to 
serve  the  Lord,  he  will  add  to  that 
weakness.  Resist  him  and  you  will  gain 
in  strength.  He  will  tempt  you  in  an- 
other point.  Resist  him  and  he  becomes 
weaker  and  you  become  stronger,  until 
you  can  say,  no  matter  what  your  sur- 
roundings may  be,  "Get  thee  behind  me, 
Satan:  for  it  is  written,  Thou  shalt 
worship  the  Lord  thy  God,  and  him  only 
shalt  thou  serve."  (Luke  4:8.) 

Now,  I  mention  this  because  there 
are  too  many  broken  hearts  in  our 
Church,  because  men,  some  of  whom 
hold  the  Priesthood  and  prominent  posi- 
tions, are  tempted  right  wherein  they 
are  weak,  and  they  forget  that  they  have 
made  covenants  with  the  Lord  and  step 
aside  from  the  path  of  virtue  and  dis- 
cretion and  will  break  their  wives' 
hearts  because  of  foolish  indulgence  and 
because  of  their  yielding. 

We  have  one  of  the  most  sacred  cove- 
nants in  all  the  world  pertaining  to  the 
happiness  of  the  home,  and  there  are 
men  within  the  sound  of  my  voice  who 
have  forgotten  how  sacred  that  cove- 
nant is.  The  Brethren  of  the  Twelve, 
the  General  Authorities  of  the  Church, 
the  stake  authorities,  are  urging  youth 
everywhere  to  go  to  the  temple  to  be 
married.  Don't  you  go  to  that  temple 
unless  you  are  ready  to  accept  the  cove- 
nants that  you  make. 

Marriage  in  the  temple  is  one  of  the 
most  beautiful  things  in  all  the  world. 
A  couple  is  led  there  by  love,  the  divinest 
attribute  of  the  human  soul.  A  young 
man  looks  upon  that  bride,  rightfully, 
who  will  be  the  mother  of  his  children, 
as  being  as  pure  as  a  snowflake,  as  spot- 


PRESIDENT  DAVID  O.  McKAY 


89 


less  as  a  sunbeam,  as  worthy  of  mother- 
hood as  any  virgin.  And  I  will  tell 
you  that  it  is  a  glorious  thing  for  a 
woman  thus  to  bear  the  robes  and  be 
the  pride  of  a  young  Elder's  heart,  one 
who  trusts  her  to  be  the  head  of  his 
household. 

And  she  trusts  him  as  being  as  worthy 
of  fatherhood  as  she  of  motherhood, 
and  rightfully,  too,  because  on  his 
shoulders  are  the  robes  of  the  Holy 
Priesthood,  testifying  to  his  young  bride, 
and  to  all,  that  he  is  as  worthy  of  father- 
hood as  she  of  motherhood. 

And  together  they  stand  in  the  House 
of  the  Lord  and  testify,  covenant  before 
him  that  each  will  be  true  to  the  cove- 
nants they  make  that  day,  each  keeping 
himself  or  herself  to  the  other  and  none 
else.  That  is  the  highest  ideal  of  mar- 
riage ever  given  to  man.  If  those 
covenants  were  kept  as  sacred  as  sacred 
covenants  should  be  kept,  there  would 
be  fewer  broken  hearts  among  wives 
and  fewer  among  the  husbands,  when 
wives  forget.  A  covenant  is  a  sacred 
thing,  and  a  man  who  is  married  in 
the  temple,  has  no  right  to  be  looking 
at  young  women,  whether  they  are  in 
the  choir  or  in  the  Relief  Society  or  on 
the  General  Board,  or  doing  any  of  the 
duties  of  the  Church.  You  have  a  cove- 
nant to  be  true  to  that  wife. 

Brethren  of  the  Priesthood,  keep  it 
true,  be  true  to  it. 

"It's  easy  enough  to  be  prudent, 
When  nothing  tempts  you  to  stray; 

When  without  or  within  no  voice  of  sin 
Is  luring  your  soul  away. 

But  it's  only  a  negative  virtue 
Until  it  is  tried  by  fire, 

And  the  life  that  is  worth  the  honor  of 
earth, 

Is  the  life  that  resists  desire. 

By  the  cynic,  the  sad,  the  fallen 
Who  had  no  strength  for  the  strife, 

The  world's  highway  is  cumbered  today; 
They  make  up  the  item  of  life. 

But  the  virtue  that  conquers  passion 
And  the  sorrow  that  hides  in  a  smile, 

It  is  these  that  are  worth  the  homage  of 
earth 

For  we  find  them  but  once  in  a  while." 

— Ella  Wheeler  Wilcox 

I  plead  with  the  army  assembled  to- 
night in  this  Priesthood  meeting,  to 
keep  true  to  the  covenants  made  in  the 


House  of  God.  You  have  no  right  to 
neglect  your  wives  and  go  and  seek  the 
company  of  others  who  seem  to  be  more 
attractive  to  you  because  you  are  thrown 
with  them  in  daily  life,  in  your  business 
affairs,  or  in  Church  affairs.  This  may 
seem  general,  but  while  I  speak  to  you, 
a  wife  with  her  tears  and  her  pleadings 
comes  to  me  now,  asking,  "Won't  you 
just  say  a  prayer,  won't  you  offer  a 
prayer  to  try  to  bring  my  husband  back?" 
Well,  she  may  have  been  to  blame  for 
the  trouble — she  said  she  was  partly  to 
blame — but  I  know  he  was  to  blame,  for 
he  is  a  man  who  holds  the  Priesthood 
and  he  has  no  right  to  break  his  cove- 
nants. We  have  too  many  divorces  in 
the  Church,  and  men,  I  think  we  are 
to  blame  for  most  of  them — not  all,  but 
most  of  them. 

With  regard  to  temple  work,  bishops, 
be  more  careful  about  issuing  recom- 
mends. First,  in  the  details:  Many 
persons  come  to  the  temples  with  recom- 
mends incompletely  prepared,  lacking 
essential  information,  often  without  in- 
dication as  to  the  purpose  of  the  ordi- 
nance. 

Next:  Missionaries  not  infrequently 
come  to  the  Mission  Home  without 
temple  recommends.  That  should  never 
be,  bishops.  Most  of  them,  not  having 
received  their  endowments,  must  go  to 
the  temple,  and  the  program  at  the 
Mission  Home  provides  for  at  least  two 
temple  sessions. 

Please  be  careful,  bishops  and  stake 
presidencies,  for  we  ask  that  you  give 
special  attention  to  the  correction  of 
these  two  matters  and  save  much  in- 
convenience, expense,  and  time  to  temple 
and  general  office  staff  and  the  people 
of  the  Church  as  well. 

I  see  that  the  time  is  gone  and  I 
must  not  detain  you  longer. 

If  you  will  have  your  testimonies 
strengthened,  to  have  it  revealed  to  you 
now  individually  that  Christ  is  aiding 
you  in  your  work,  guiding  his  Church, 
well  the  best  way  to  do  that  is  to  follow 
the  admonition  of  my  brethren  who 
have  spoken  to  you  tonight — doing  your 
duty,  as  President  Moyle  urged,  attend- 
ing to  misionary  work,  no  matter  what 
the  cost  may  be  or  how  many  hours  you 
have  to  spend. 

There  is  an  old  saying  that  "man's 
extremity  is  God's  opportunity."  You 
remember  the  story  I  have  told  about 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


90 

Saturday,  October  10 

James  McMurrin,  who  had  to  fill  an 
appointment  in  Falkirk,  Scotland,  on 
Sunday.  He  was  in  Burntisland  Satur- 
day night  and  he  had  a  sixpence  or  a 
shilling  in  his  pocket  to  pay  for  his  boat 
ride  across  the  Leith  Walk  to  Edin- 
borough.  When  that  was  spent  he  was 
alone.  The  only  way  he  could  get  to 
Falkirk  was  by  the  one  train  that  was 
then  running  between  Edinborough  and 
Glasgow. 

He  had  an  appointment  with  the 
Branch  in  Edinborough  from  ten  to 
twelve.  He  filled  that  appointment. 
When  they  asked  him  to  go  to  lunch, 
he  said,  "No,  thank  you,  I  have  to  be 
in  Falkirk  and  I  have  to  take  the  train 
that  leaves  at  one  o'clock" — or  there- 
abouts. One  by  one  the  Saints  bade  him 
goodbye,  all  but  Brother  Robertson,  who 
was  president  of  the  Branch.  "Why," 
he  said,  "Well,  if  ye  canna  go  hame 
with  me,  I'll  gae  ye  Scotch  convoy,"  and 
together  they  walked  across  Princess 
Street  down  to  Waverly  Station,  and 
crossed  under  the  glass  covered  canopy, 
over  to  the  gate  from  which  the  train 
was  to  leave. 

The  only  possible  way  that  Brother 
McMurrin  could  have  kept  his  appoint- 
ment that  night  was  to  get  that  train. 
He  had  faith  that  the  Lord  would  open 
up  his  way.  He  did  not  ask  anyone  for 
a  shilling,  nor  for  sixpence,  nor  for  two- 
pence, nor  for  two  and  six,  and  as  the 
time  approached,  Brother  Robertson  said, 
"Well,  Brother  McMurrin,  it  is  time  just 
to  get  your  ticket,  so  I  will  say  good-bye." 
"Goodbye,  Brother  Robertson,"  and 
Brother  McMurrin  was  left  alone.  There 
was  his  extremity. 

"Father," — I  will  give  you  his  words 
as  he  gave  them  to  me — "Father,  I  have 
come  just  as  far  as  I  can  in  fulfilling  my 
duty.  Open  up  the  way  that  I  may  get 
on  this  train  and  go  to  Falkirk."  He  had 
in  mind,  he  said,  that  the  gatekeeper 
would  probably  let  him  go  through.  He 
did  not  think  of  the  fact  that  the  gate- 
keeper was  a  Scotchman.  He  would 
never  do  that.  What  happened?  Brother 
Robertson  had  just  returned  to  the  steps 
leading  up  to  Princess  Street  and  the 
thought  came  to  him,  "I  wonder  if 
Brother  McMurrin  has  enough  money." 
Quickly  retracing  his  steps,  he  walked 
across  the  station,  pulled  out  of  his 
pocket  a  two  and  six  piece,  and  said, 
"Here,  Brother  McMurrin,  perhaps  you 


Second  Day 

need  this."  "Thank  you,  Brother  Rob- 
ertson, I  need  that  to  get  my  ticket." 
"Man's  extremity  is  God's  opportunity." 

You  brethren  in  the  Church  will 
come  against  the  wall.  It  seems  to  be 
across  your  path.  It  may  be  morally. 
You  cannot  overcome  it,  or  you  cannot 
get  through  it,  you  cannot  see.  You  can 
walk  from  here  to  that  wall,  having  faith 
that  God  will  give  you  a  ladder,  or 
show  you  a  hidden  ladder  or  an  opening, 
and  he  will  do  it,  if  you  will  walk  just 
as  far  as  you  can  in  the  performance 
of  your  duty.  No  matter  what  it  is  or 
how  difficult  your  duty,  do  it;  walk  that 
distance,  and  then  say  in  all  sincerity 
and  faith,  "Father,  help  me.  Open  up 
the  way  for  me.  Give  me  strength  to 
do  my  duty,  give  me  strength  to  over- 
come temptation." 

God  help  us  as  men  representing  him 
through  the  Priesthood,  the  Holy  Priest- 
hood, to  do  our  duty  and  do  it  well,  I 
pray  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ.  Amen. 

President  David  O.  McKay: 

The  Men's  Chorus  of  the  Tabernacle 
Choir  will  now  sing,  "The  Lord  Bless 
You  and  Keep  You."  Elder  Leo  Reeve, 
president  of  the  Zion  Park  Stake,  will 
offer  the  closing  prayer,  after  which  this 
Conference  will  be  adjourned  until  ten 
o'clock  tomorrow  morning. 

Again  we  thank  the  Men's  Chorus 
for  their  inspirational  singing. 

The  session  at  ten  o'clock  Sunday 
morning  will  be  broadcast  as  a  public 
service  over  television  and  radio  stations 
throughout  the  West.  The  Tabernacle 
Choir  broadcast  will  be  from  8:30  to 
9:00  in  the  morning. 

Also,  Elder  Richard  L.  Evans  of  the 
Council  of  the  Twelve  will  be  the  speaker 
on  the  CBS  Church-of-the-Air  Program, 
broadcast  over  KSL  tomorrow  morning 
at  7:30. 

"The  Lord  Bless  You  and  Keep  You," 
by  the  Men's  Chorus,  followed  by  the 
benediction,  and  this  great  Conference 
will  be  adjourned  until  ten  o'clock  to- 
morrow morning. 

The  Men's  Chorus  of  the  Tabernacle 
Choir  sang  the  hymn,  "The  Lord  Bless 
You  and  Keep  You,"  following  which 
the  closing  prayer  was  offered  by  Elder 
Leo  Reeve,  president  of  Zion  Park  Stake. 

Conference  adjourned  until  Sunday 
morning,  October  11,  at  10:00  o'clock. 


THIRD  DAY 
MORNING  MEETING 


(For  a  full  report  of  the  Church  of 
the  Air  and  Tabernacle  Choir  and  Organ 
Broadcasts,  see  pages  126  to  130.) 

Conference  reconvened  Sunday  morn- 
ing, October  11,  1959  at  10  o'clock,  with 
President  David  O.  McKay  presiding, 
and  conducting  the  services. 

The  music  for  this  session  of  the  Con- 
ference was  furnished  by  the  Tabernacle 
Choir,  under  the  direction  of  Richard  P. 
Condie.  Frank  W.  Asper  was  at  the 
organ  console. 

President  David  O.  McKay: 

The  Tabernacle  Choir,  under  the  di- 
rection of  Richard  P.  Condie,  with 
Frank  W.  Asper  at  the  organ,  will  open 
these  services  by  singing,  "The  Lord's 
Prayer."  The  opening  prayer  will  be 
offered  by  Elder  Theodore  C.  Jacobsen, 
formerly  president  of  the  Eastern  States 
Mission. 


ly  president  of  the  Eastern  States  Mis- 
sion, offered  the  opening  prayer. 

President  David  O.  McKay: 

Elder  Theodore  C.  Jacobsen,  formerly 
president  of  the  Eastern  States  Mission, 
offered  the  invocation.  The  Choir  will 
now  sing,  "Jesus,  Name  of  Wondrous 
Love,"  Richard  P.  Condie  conducting. 
Following  the  singing  President  Henry 
D.  Moyle  of  the  First  Presidency  will 
address  us. 


The  Choir  sang  "The  Lord's  Prayer." 
(By  Robertson) 
Elder  Theodore  C.  Jacobsen,  former- 


Singing  by  the  Choir,  "Jesus,  Name 
of  Wondrous  Love." 

President  David  O.  McKay: 

The  audience  will  be  interested  in 
knowing  that  this  service  is  being  broad- 
cast on  television  and  radio  stations  in 
many  western  states  during  this  first 
hour.  President  Henry  D.  Moyle  of  the 
First  Presidency  will  be  our  first  speaker. 
He  will  be  followed  by  Bishop  Thorpe  B. 
Isaacson. 


PRESIDENT  HENRY  D.  MOYLE 

Second  Counselor  in  the  First  Presidency 


"We  believe  in  God,  the  Eternal 
Father,  and  in  His  Son,  Jesus  Christ, 
and  in  the  Holy  Ghost."  (First  Article 
of  Faith.) 

Upon  this  article  of  our  faith  is  the 
Church  founded.  Jesus  Christ,  our  Lord 
and  Master,  is  the  Son  of  the  Living 
God.  Christ  is  our  Head.  His  life  and 
works  in  mortality  had  a  twofold  pur- 
pose in  the  eternal  plan  of  man:  first, 
to  redeem  man  from  the  fall.  Therefore, 
has  he  been  called  the  Redeemer  of 
mankind.  We  believe  with  Paul  of 
old: 

"If  in  this  life  only  we  have  hope  in 
Christ,  we  are  of  all  men  most  miserable. 

"But  now  is  Christ  risen  from  the 
dead,  and  become  the  firstfruits  of  them 
that  slept. 

"For  since  by  man  came  death,  by 


man  came  also  the  resurrection  of  the 
dead. 

"For  as  in  Adam  all  die,  even  so  in 
Christ  shall  all  be  made  alive."  (I  Cor. 
15:19-22.) 

The  atonement  of  Christ  was  in  turn 
twofold,  as  I  have  said:  first,  to  redeem 
man  from  the  fall.  It  is  through  this 
atonement  that  man  is  resurrected  from 
the  dead  that  he  might  gain  eternal 
life  in  its  fulness,  that  there  might  be 
a  reuniting  of  the  body  and  the  spirit 
after  death.  This  constitutes  the  ful- 
ness of  man. 

The  second  purpose  of  the  atonement 
was  that  we  might  be  resurrected,  free 
from  our  transgressions  in  mortality,  and 
not  live  forever  in  our  sins.  Christ  also 
atoned  for  all  of  our  individual  sins. 
Thus,  we  say  he  took  upon  himself  the 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


92 

Sunday,  October  11 

sins  of  the  world.  John  tells  us,  "For 
God  so  loved  the  world,  that  he  gave 
his  only  begotten  Son,  that  whosoever 
believeth  in  him  should  not  perish,  but 
have  everlasting  life."  (John  3:16.) 

We  say  in  our  second  article  of  faith: 
"We  believe  that  men  will  be  punished 
for  their  own  sins,  and  not  for  Adam's 
transgression." 

Thus  we  see  that  the  atonement  of 
Christ  brings  upon  us  the  redemption 
from  the  dead.  We  all  become  fruits 
of  the  resurrection.  Redemption  from 
our  own  sins  depends  upon  us.  We  are 
not  saved  from  ourselves  by  grace  alone 
as  we  are  from  Adam's  transgression.  To 
understand  this  simple  difference  gives 
us  the  power  to  differentiate  in  large 
measure  truth  from  error.  When  we 
seek  the  inspiration  of  God  in  answer 
to  our  prayers;  he  inspires  us.  We  re- 
pent, and  repentance  leads  us  to  an 
appreciation  of  the  laws  and  ordinances 
of  God  by  which  man  can,  through  his 
own  effort,  through  the  exercise  of  his 
own  will  power,  lift  himself  from  sin 
to  righteousness.  When  he  does  this, 
he  is  on  the  way  to  eternal  salvation 
and  exaltation  in  the  kingdom  of  our 
Heavenly  Father. 

Paul  said  of  Christ:  "Though  he  were 
a  Son,  yet  learned  he  obedience  by  the 
things  which  he  suffered; 

"And  being  made  perfect,  he  became 
the  author  of  eternal  salvation  unto  all 
them  that  obey  him."  (Hebrews  5:8-9.) 

In  all  things  Christ  has  set  us  the 
pattern.  For  this  purpose  he  came  to 
earth.  No  deviation  from  his  plan  can 
be  justified  or  tolerated  either  in  the 
judgment  or  the  mercy  of  God.  Further- 
more, no  excuse,  no  reason,  exists  why 
all  men  should  not  lend  obedience 
thereto,  rather  than  to  try  to  justify 
themselves  in  pursuing  any  other  course 
in  life.  Christ  came  to  help  us  work 
out  our  salvation. 

There  are  two  phases  of  Christ's  earth- 
ly mission.  First,  he  taught  his  followers 
the  plan  by  example  as  well  as  by  pre- 
cept. His  teachings  began  with  his  own 
baptism  in  the  waters  of  Jordan  at  the 
hands  of  John  the  Baptist  by  immersion, 
and  John  had  theretofore  been  duly  com- 
missioned of  the  Lord  to  perform  this 
ordinance.  Could  he  have  emphasized 
the  importance  of  baptism  in  any  better 
way? 

"And  Jesus,  when  he  was  baptized, 


Third  Day 

went  up  straightway  out  of  the  water: 
and,  lo,  the  heavens  were  opened  unto 
him,  and  he  saw  the  Spirit  of  God  de- 
scending like  a  dove,  and  lighting  upon 
him: 

"And  lo  a  voice  from  heaven,  saying, 
This  is  my  beloved  Son,  in  whom  I  am 
well  pleased."  (Matthew  3:16-17.) 

".  .  .  for  thus  it  becometh  us  to  fulfil 
all  righteousness."  (Ibid.,  15.) 

We  next  see  Christ  in  the  hands  of 
the  tempter.  Thus  he  taught  us  by  his 
example  to  overcome  the  power  of  evil. 
We  must  all  recognize  in  our  lives  the 
existence  of  two  great  powers,  and  learn 
early  in  life  that  with  the  power  and 
inspiration  of  God  we  can  overcome 
and  resist  and  turn  aside  every  evil  force. 
Even  his  fasting  for  forty  days  gave  us 
an  understanding  of  how  we  can  like- 
wise efficaciously  reach  the  source  of 
power  essential  for  our  own  progress. 
How  could  the  Savior  have  taught  us 
better  how  to  begin  a  life  of  humility 
and  of  service? 

We  next  see  Christ  on  the  mountain 
teaching  his  disciples  whom  he  had 
chosen,  and  with  them  other  listeners — 
yes,  the  multitude — -the  principles  by 
which  men  could  control  their  lives, 
and  should  control  them.  Out  of  these 
teachings  we  have  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount.  Would  that  it  were  understood 
by  all  men!  But  all  men  do  not  under- 
stand the  teachings  of  Christ.  His 
teachings  are  sufficient  to  have  taught 
all  who  have  heard  and  all  who  have 
read  or  now  read  that  they  should  all 
have  recognized  him  as  the  Son  of  the 
Living  God. 

There  were  only  a  relatively  few  who 
followed  him.  Too  many  were  steeped 
in  the  paganistic  practices  of  the  past, 
too  self-satisfied  to  open  their  minds 
and  their  hearts  to  the  truth,  even  when 
spoken  with  the  conviction  and  knowl- 
edge and  power  of  God,  made  manifest 
through  his  Son  Jesus  Christ,  our  Lord 
and  Master. 

Time  will  not  permit  the  enumeration 
of  all  his  teachings.  How  grateful  we 
are  that  he  gave  us  the  Sacrament  of 
the  Lord's  Supper  and  commanded  us 
to  meet  frequently  and  partake  of  that 
Sacrament  and  renew  our  covenants  to 
keep  his  laws  and  obey  his  command- 
ments, even  as  we  covenanted  to  do  at 
the  waters  of  baptism. 

His  second  purpose  was  not  finally 


PRESIDENT  HENRY  D.  MOYLE 


93 


completed  until  after  his  crucifixion  and 
resurrection,  just  prior  to  his  ascension 
to  heaven,  when  he  charged  his  apostles 
of  old  to  go  into  all  the  world  and 
preach  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  to 
every  nation,  kindred,  tongue,  and  peo- 
ple, and  that  they  that  believed  should 
be  baptized  and  thereby  bring  about 
their  own  salvation. 

"And  Jesus  came  and  spake  unto  them, 
saying,  All  power  is  given  unto  me  in 
heaven  and  in  earth. 

"Go  ye  therefore,  and  teach  all  na- 
tions, baptizing  them  in  the  name  of  the 
Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy 
Ghost: 

"Teaching  them  to  observe  all  things 
whatsoever  I  have  commanded  you:  and, 
lo,  I  am  with  you  alway,  even  unto  the 
end  of  the  world.  Amen."  (Ibid.,  28:18- 
20.) 

Here  again  he  set  the  great  pattern  to 
be  followed  by  his  disciples  in  every 
generation  of  time.  The  plan  Christ 
thus  gave  us  can  be  stated  very  simply: 

We  hear  the  gospel. 

We  repent. 

We  are  inspired. 

We  are  converted  by  that  inspiration, 

the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 
We  accept,  and  we  learn  the  gospel. 
We  teach  the  gospel  to  others. 

Its  divinity  is  revealed  to  those  who 
seek  the  truth  by  the  gift  and  power  of 
God.  That  is  what  is  meant  by  the 
scriptures:  ".  .  .  seek  and  ye  shall  find, 
knock  and  it  shall  be  opened  unto  you." 
(Ibid.,  7:7.) 

We  ourselves  must  act.  We  must 
initiate  our  own  search  for  truth  of  our 
own  free  will.  Once  we  do,  the  Lord 
magnifies  us,  fills  our  souls  with  his  Holy 
Spirit,  and  leads  us  on  to  faith  and  to 
repentance.  When  we  have  received 
and  understood  the  word,  we  accept  the 
gospel  and  lend  obedience  thereto. 

Our  third  and  fourth  articles  of  faith 
read:  "We  believe  that  through  the 
Atonement  of  Christ,  all  mankind  may 
be  saved,  by  obedience  to  the  laws  and 
ordinances  of  the  Gospel." 

"We  believe  that  the  first  principles 
and  ordinances  of  the  Gospel  are:  first, 
Faith  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ;  second, 
Repentance;  third,  Baptism  by  immer- 
sion for  the  remission  of  sins;  fourth, 
Laying  on  of  hands  for  the  gift  of  the 
Holy  Ghost." 


We  express  our  love  and  devotion  to 
God  for  our  conversion  by  proclaiming 
his  word  to  others,  even  as  he  has  given 
it  to  us.  We  spend  our  lives  teaching 
the  gospel  to  each  other  in  the  Church, 
in  our  homes,  in  all  our  worshiping  as- 
semblies. We  proclaim  the  truths  of  the 
gospel  to  our  neighbors  and  our  friends 
far  and  near.  We  fill  our  missions  on 
earth  by  trying  to  follow  in  this  respect, 
as  in  all  others,  the  charge  and  the  exam- 
ple and  the  teachings  of  Christ,  our 
Lord. 

After  Peter  and  the  apostles  of  old 
received  this  commission  to  preach  to 
every  nation,  we  see  them  next  actually 
preaching  the  gospel,  and  our  first  re- 
corded history  of  their  missionary  labors 
is  recorded  thus: 

"And  when  the  day  of  Pentecost  was 
fully  come,  they  were  all  with  one  ac- 
cord in  one  place. 

"And  suddenly  there  came  a  sound 
from  heaven  as  of  a  rushing  mighty 
wind,  and  it  filled  all  the  house  where 
they  were  sitting. 

"And  there  appeared  unto  them  cloven 
tongues  like  as  of  fire,  and  it  sat  upon 
each  of  them. 

"And  they  were  all  filled  with  the 
Holy  Ghost,  and  began  to  speak  with 
other  tongues,  as  the  Spirit  gave  them 
utterance.  .  .  . 

"Therefore  let  all  the  house  of  Israel 
know  assuredly,  that  God  hath  made 
that  same  Jesus,  whom  ye  have  crucified, 
both  Lord  and  Christ. 

"Now  when  they  heard  this,  they 
were  pricked  in  their  heart,  and  said 
unto  Peter  and  to  the  rest  of  the  apos- 
tles, Men  and  brethren,  what  shall  we 
do? 

"Then  Peter  said  unto  them,  Repent, 
and  be  baptized  every  one  of  you  in  the 
name  of  Jesus  Christ  for  the  remission 
of  sins,  and  ye  shall  receive  the  gift  of 
the  Holy  Ghost. 

"For  the  promise  is  unto  you,  and  to 
your  children,  and  to  all  that  are  afar 
off,  even  as  many  as  the  Lord  our  God 
shall  call."  (Acts  2:1-4,  36-39.) 

"But  those  things,  which  God  before 
had  shewed  by  the  mouth  of  all  his 
prophets,  that  Christ  should  suffer,  he 
hath  so  fulfilled. 

"Repent  ye  therefore,  and  be  con- 
verted, that  your  sins  may  be  blotted 
out,  when  the  times  of  refreshing  shall 
come  from  the  presence  of  the  Lord; 


94 

Sunday,  October  11 

"And  he  shall  send  Jesus  Christ,  which 
before  was  preached  unto  you: 

"Whom  the  heaven  must  receive  until 
the  times  of  restitution  of  all  things, 
which  God  hath  spoken  by  the  mouth 
of  all  his  holy  prophets  since  the  world 
began. 

"For  Moses  truly  said  unto  the  fathers, 
A  prophet  shall  the  Lord  your  God 
raise  up  unto  you  of  your  brethren,  like 
unto  me;  him  shall  ye  hear  in  all  things 
whatsoever  he  shall  say  unto  you. 

"And  it  shall  come  to  pass,  that  every 
soul,  which  will  not  hear  that  prophet, 
shall  be  destroyed  from  among  the  peo- 
ple." (Ibid.,  3:18-23.) 

"Then  Peter,  filled  with  the  Holy 
Ghost,  said  unto  them,  Ye  rulers  of  the 
people,  and  elders  of  Israel, 

"If  we  this  day  be  examined  of  the 
good  deed  done  to  the  impotent  man, 
by  what  means  he  is  made  whole; 

"Be  it  known  unto  you  all,  and  to  all 
the  people  of  Israel,  that  by  the  name 
of  Jesus  Christ  of  Nazareth,  whom  ye 
crucified,  whom  God  raised  from  the 
dead,  even  by  him  doth  this  man  stand 
here  before  you  whole. 

"This  is  the  stone  which  was  set  at 
nought  of  you  builders,  which  is  become 
the  head  of  the  corner."  (Ibid.,  4:8-11.) 

Today,  and  for  the  past  130  years  of 
the  existence  of  the  restored  Church  of 
Jesus  Christ,  the  Spirit  which  prompted 
Peter  and  his  associates  of  old  has  im- 
pelled the  elders  of  the  Church  of  Jesus 
Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints  to  do  like- 
wise. Ever  since  1830  we  have  had  in 
the  world  young  men  and  women  who, 
because  of  their  love  of  the  gospel  and 
the  witness  of  its  divinity  which  they 
have  received  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  preach 
the  gospel  in  its  truth  and  in  its  purity. 
They  devote  their  time  and  their  means 
to  accomplish  this  mission,  to  call  all 
people  to  repentance  and  to  teach  the 
plan  of  life  and  salvation  given  us  of 
the  Savior.  The  gospel  has  been  re- 
stored to  the  earth  in  its  fulness,  in  its 
simplicity  and  purity  in  this  day  through 
the  instrumentality  of  the  Prophet 
Joseph  Smith. 

Like  Paul  of  old,  they  say,  and  they 
say  it  with  pure  hearts  and  clean  hands, 
as  they  dedicate  their  lives  to  their  mis- 
sionary labors: 

"For  I  determined  not  to  know  any 
thing  among  you,  save  Jesus  Christ,  and 
him  crucified. 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


Third  Day 

"And  I  was  with  you  in  weakness, 
and  in  fear,  and  in  much  trembling. 

"And  my  speech  and  my  preaching 
was  not  with  enticing  words  of  man's 
wisdom,  but  in  demonstration  of  the 
Spirit  and  of  power: 

"That  your  faith  should  not  stand 
in  the  wisdom  of  men,  but  in  the  power 
of  God. 

"But  as  it  is  written,  Eye  hath  not 
seen,  nor  ear  heard,  neither  have  en- 
tered into  the  heart  of  man,  the  things 
which  God  hath  prepared  for  them 
that  love  him. 

"For  what  man  knoweth  the  things 
of  a  man,  save  the  spirit  of  man  which 
is  in  him?  even  so  the  things  of  God 
knoweth  no  man,  but  the  Spirit  of  God." 
(I  Cor.  2:2-5,  9,  11.) 

Every  convert  to  the  Church  today 
has  this  desire  in  his  heart  to  tell  others 
what  he  has  found.  There  is  joy  in 
knowing  the  truth,  and  there  is  joy  in 
intuitively  sharing  it  with  others.  This 
is  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  It  is  the 
sure  sign  of  our  conversion.  Not  all  of 
the  members  of  the  Church  leave  their 
homes  to  go  on  missions  into  the  world, 
my  friends,  to  bring  to  you  the  gospel 
in  your  homes,  but  within  the  sphere  of 
their  influence  our  people  continue 
through  life  to  bear  their  testimony  of 
the  existence  of  God  which  gives  to  them 
that  peace  which  can  come  alone  from 
our  Father  in  heaven. 

As  elders  in  Israel  today  we  are 
charged  with  the  responsibility  of  pro- 
claiming his  word  to  the  world  and 
crying  repentance  to  the  sons  and  daugh- 
ters of  our  Heavenly  Father.  Our 
brothers  and  sisters  throughout  the 
world,  those  who  are  listening  in,  who 
may  not  be  of  our  number,  let  us  beg  of 
you  to  give  our  missionaries  the  oppor- 
tunity they  so  earnestly  seek  to  give  to 
you  the  simple  principles  of  the  gospel 
as  taught  by  Jesus  Christ  himself.  These 
missionaries  come  to  you  holding  the 
priesthood  of  God.  They  have  received 
his  power  and  authority  to  preach  the 
gospel  and  administer  in  the  ordinances 
thereof.  They  have  brought  joy  to  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  in  the  past.  All  of 
us  here  today  are  here  as  a  result  of 
similar  labors  upon  the  part  of  former 
missionaries. 

My  friends,  you  cannot  afford  to  turn 
a  deaf  ear  to  the  truth,  for  we  declare 
to  you  in  all  soberness  that  God  lives 


BISHOP  THORPE  B.  ISAACSON 


95 


and  has  once  again  spoken  from  the 
heavens,  once  again  restored  his  power 
and  his  priesthood  in  its  pristine 
strength  and  purity  upon  those  of  us 
whom  he  has  called  to  carry  on  his 
work  in  this,  the  dispensation  of  time 
in  which  he  has  brought  together  all 
that  he  has  given  his  children  in  all 
previous  generations  of  man,  all  as  fore- 
told through  his  prophets  of  old. 

We  have  the  power  and  the  authority 
to  confer  these  same  blessings  upon  all 
nations,  as  the  blessings  which  were 
given  by  the  apostles  of  old  to  the  na- 
tions in  which  they  served  as  mission- 
aries. 

Daniel  tells  us:  "And  in  the  days  of 
these  kings  shall  the  God  of  heaven 
set  up  a  kingdom,  which  shall  never  be 
destroyed:  and  the  kingdom  shall  not 
be  left  to  other  people,  but  it  shall  break 
in  pieces  and  consume  all  these  king- 
doms, and  it  shall  stand  for  ever." 
(Daniel  2:44.) 

John,  the  Revelator,  gave  us  one  of 
the  most  beautiful  predictions  of  all  of 
the  restoration  of  the  gospel  in  these 
latter  days,  for  he  said:  "And  I  saw  an- 
other angel  fly  in  the  midst  of  heaven, 
having  the  everlasting  gospel  to  preach 
unto  them  that  dwell  on  the  earth, 
and  to  every  nation,  and  kindred,  and 
tongue,  and  people, 

"Saying  with  a  loud  voice,  Fear  God, 
and  give  glory  to  him;  for  the  hour  of 
his  judgment  is  come:  and  worship  him 
that  made  heaven,  and  earth,  and  the 
sea,  and  the  fountains  of  waters."  (Rev. 
14:6-7.) 


These  prophecies  have,  in  large  meas- 
ure, been  fulfilled.  The  gospel  has  been 
restored  to  the  earth.  God  continues  to 
magnify  those  upon  whom  he  has  be- 
stowed his  authority  in  these  latter  days 
to  serve  his  people  and  to  guide  and 
direct  the  honest  in  heart  the  world 
over  into  the  paths  of  truth  and  of  right. 
We  declare  most  solemnly  that  we  have 
been  called  of  God,  and  that  we  proclaim 
his  word  to  the  world  by  virtue  of  his 
power  and  authority.  We  invoke  his 
blessings  upon  all  mankind,  and  particu- 
larly that  their  hearts  might  be  opened, 
their  desires  might  be  toward  righteous- 
ness, and  that  they  might  lend  an  ear 
and  understand  and  appreciate  the  truth 
when  it  is  presented  to  them  by  his 
duly  ordained  and  constituted  servants — 
the  missionaries  of  the  Church  of  Jesus 
Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints. 

God  bless  them,  and  bless  us,  and 
bless  all  who  lend  ear  to  their  teachings, 
we  pray  humbly  this  day,  in  the  name 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Amen. 

President  David  O.  McKay: 

President  Henry  D.  Moyle  of  the  First 
Presidency  of  the  Church  has  just  spoken 
to  us.  We  hope  that  all  the  television 
sets,  radios,  that  were  tuned  in  along 
the  West  Coast,  in  the  Northwest,  and 
throughout  the  nation,  heard  Presi- 
dent Moyle's  address. 

We  shall  now  hear  from  Bishop 
Thorpe  B.  Isaacson  of  the  Presiding 
Bishopric. 


BISHOP  THORPE  B.  ISAACSON 

First  Counselor  in  the  Presiding  Bishopric 


President  McKay,  President  Clark, 
President  Moyle,  President  Smith,  my 
beloved  brothers  and  sisters,  and  the 
radio  and  television  audience:  I  am  very 
grateful  for  the  prayer  this  morning  of 
a  wonderful  man,  former  mission  presi- 
dent, Brother  Theodore  Jacobsen.  I  know 
that  the  Lord  will  answer  that  prayer, 
and  I  shall  be  grateful  to  you  for  your 
prayers  this  morning  because  I  confess 
to  you  that  I  feel  very  humble  and  very 
weak. 

As  I  have  listened  to  these  inspired 
messages  today  and  yesterday  and  the 


day  before,  I  have  thought  of  the  words 
of  Riddle:  "Those  who  know  books 
know  much,  but  those  who  know  nature 
know  more,  and  those  who  know  God 
have  reached  the  goal  of  human  wis- 
dom." 

This  great  choir,  I  am  sure,  has  up- 
lifted us  this  morning  along  with  thou- 
sands and  perhaps  millions  who  have 
heard  them.  They  are  a  great  credit  to 
the  Church  and  to  the  city,  to  the  state 
and  the  nation.  These  choir  leaders,  the 
choir  members,  and  the  officers,  are,  not 
just  good  musicians:   They  are  good 


96 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


Sunday,  October  II 

Latter-day  Saints,  and  they  are  wonder- 
ful missionaries.  They  are  devoted.  I 
have  a  very  choice  brother  singing  in  the 
choir,  and  I  know  how  deeply  devoted 
and  what  great  love  he  has  for  this 
organization.  May  God  bless  every 
single  one  of  them. 

I  know  we  have  been  deeply  touched 
this  morning  by  the  inspiring  address 
of  President  Henry  D.  Moyle.  May  I 
be  pardoned  if  I  tell  you  this  morning 
that  I  thought  his  humble  and  yet 
beautiful  address  was  just  like  the  prayer 
he  offered  a  few  days  ago  in  an  upper 
room  of  the  temple  when  the  General 
Authorities  met  there  preparatory  to 
this  great  conference.  As  he  spoke  to 
you  this  morning,  he  had  a  prayer  in 
his  heart  for  you,  the  membership  of 
the  Church,  and  for  our  friends  not  of  the 
Church;  and  as  he  offered  that  prayer 
in  the  temple,  in  the  true  order  of 

Erayer,  I  felt  sure  our  Father  in  heaven 
ad  called  him  to  his  present  position. 
Brother  Moyle  has  no  selfish  interests. 
He  has  lived  above  selfishness.  He  will 
be  a  great  blessing  to  the  membership 
of  this  Church.  Those  of  our  friends 
not  in  the  Church,  as  well  as  all  of  us, 
will  sustain  him  and  pray  for  him  in 
the  great  load  that  he  has  to  carry.  The 
mantle  of  Presidency  has  fallen  on  his 
shoulders.  Last  night  the  priesthood 
assembled  was  deeply  blessed  as  a  result 
of  his  marvelous  address.  President 
Moyle  will  be  a  great  comfort  and 
blessing  and  assistance  to  President 
McKay  and  President  Clark,  whom  he 
dearly  loves. 

A  year  ago  it  was  the  privilege  of  my 
wife  and  myself  to  visit  many  coun- 
tries of  Europe,  and  only  by  coincidence 
we  came  into  countries,  missions, 
branches,  and  districts  where  Brother 
and  Sister  Moyle  had  recently  visited. 
I  have  never  heard  anyone  speak  so 
beautifully  as  the  humble  Saints  of 
Europe  spoke  about  President  and  Sister 
Moyle.  I  think  we  will  never  know  the 
amount  of  good  and  the  help  that  he 
rendered  to  so  many  of  our  humble 
Saints  in  far-off  countries  of  Europe.  In 
many  places  he  spoke  to  them  in  their 
native  tongue.  How  grateful  they  were 
for  his  presence.  Sister  Moyle  likewise 
spoke  to  them.  They  are  dearly  loved 
in  the  far-off  countries  of  Europe. 

Faith  promotes  faith,  and  testimony 
inspires  testimony. 


Third  Day 

Today,  if  I  may,  I  would  like  to  take 
just  one  sentence  from  President 
McKay's  beautiful  dedicatory  prayer  of- 
fered at  the  London  Temple,  and  may 
I  quote  from  that  one  sentence.  Speak- 
ing to  the  Lord,  he  said:  "May  we 
express  overwhelming  gratitude  just  to 
be  alive." 

I  have  a  personal  reason  this  morning 
for  repeating  this  sentence  from  Presi- 
dent McKay's  dedicatory  prayer,  be- 
cause today  I  am  truly  grateful  just  to 
be  alive.  A  few  months  ago  I  became 
critically  ill,  and  I  learned  then,  as  I 
have  never  learned  before,  that  the  line 
between  life  and  mortality  and  death 
and  immortality  is  very  thin  indeed. 
It  only  takes  a  few  seconds — yes,  a  very 
few  seconds — to  change  from  life  and 
mortality  to  death  and  immortality,  and 
I  saw  how  close  one  can  get  to  the  pale 
of  death.  I  thought  I  was  passing  from 
this  life  to  the  other,  and  I  am  truly 
grateful  to  the  Lord  that  he  permitted 
me  to  live.  I  fully  realized  then  that  I 
was  not  prepared  or  ready  for  that  pass- 
ing, and  it  brought  to  my  mind  a  few 
words  that  I  have  read  in  a  poem  that 
goes  something  like  this: 
"There  is  no  time  that  we  could  set  for 
parting. 

Ever  our  prayer  would  be,"  (as  mine 
was) 

"Not  yet,  dear  Lord,  not  yet,  just  another 
day." 

I  realized  then  more  than  ever  before 
how  dependent  we  are  upon  God,  our 
Eternal  Father,  even  for  the  preserva- 
tion of  our  lives.  When  one  faces  such 
a  change,  and  we  are  all  going  to  face 
it,  when  we  come  close  to  it,  many 
things  come  to  our  minds.  I  wonder 
if  you  are  ready  for  that  change.  I 
wonder  if  you  are  prepared  to  change 
from  life  to  death.  I  believe  that  we 
can  become  prepared  and  ready,  and  I 
concluded  then  that  if  the  Lord  would 
permit  me  to  live  longer,  I  intended  to 
live  better  so  that  I  could  die  better. 

Even  though  one  may  not  be  com- 
pletely conscious  or  aware  of  what  is 
going  on  about  him,  I  shall  always  be 
truly,  humbly  grateful,  I  hope,  more 
grateful  than  ever  before  in  my  life  for 
the  blessings  and  the  prayers  of  my 
friends  and  family  and  my  Brethren. 

I  am  more  grateful  now  because  I 
realize  the  power  of  the  Holy  Priesthood 
of  God  that  we  have  heard  so  much 


BISHOP  THOR1 

about  in  this  conference,  often  referred 
to  as  the  greatest  power  on  the  face  of 
the  earth.  Some  of  the  Brethren,  who 
are  prophets  and  servants  of  God,  came 
to  my  room  in  the  hospital  and  laid 
their  hands  upon  my  head  and  anointed 
me  with  holy  consecrated  oil,  and  then 
said  unto  me,  "By  the  power  of  the  Holy 
Priesthood,  (Brother  Moyle  just  told  us 
about  that  power)  and  in  the  name  of 
Jesus  Christ,  we  bless  you  that  you  shall 
be  well." 

Do  you  know  of  any  such  power  as 
that  in  the  world?  I  bear  testimony  to 
you  that  the  power  of  the  priesthood 
is  here  in  the  Church.  I  testify  to  you 
that  one  knows  and  one  feels  that  influ- 
ence and  that  power,  and  is  mindful  of 
the  blessings  of  the  Lord  received 
through  the  administration  of  his  serv- 
ants holding  that  Holy  Priesthood. 

I  am  grateful  to  be  alive,  and  I  prom- 
ised the  Lord  that  I  would  bear  testimony 
of  that  power  and  that  healing  influ- 
ence whenever  I  could  have  the  strength 
to  do  so.  I  thank  God,  and  I  hope  that 
you  thank  God  just  to  be  alive.  If  you 
feel  that  you  are  not  quite  prepared  or 
ready  for  that  change  from  life  to  death, 
let  me  urge  you  now — today — to  change 
your  life.  Remember  it  only  takes  a 
few  seconds  to  change  from  life  unto 
death.  Let  me  urge  you  to  make  the 
necessary  adjustments  in  your  life.  Yes, 
make  new  resolutions.  Turn  back,  if 
you  have  reason  to  believe  that  you  are 
on  the  wrong  road,  turn  back  now.  It 
isn't  too  late. 

May  I  quote  from  Amulek's  testimony 
in  the  book  of  Alma,  wherein  he  states: 
"For  behold,  this  life  is  the  time  for 
men  to  prepare  to  meet  God;  yea,  behold 
the  day  of  this  life  is  the  day  for  men 
to  perform  their  labors  ...  for  that  same 
spirit  which  doth  possess  your  bodies  at 
the  time  that  ye  go  out  of  this  life,  that 
same  spirit  will  have  power  to  possess 
your  body  in  that  eternal  world." 
(Alma  34:32,  34.) 

Repent!  Forsake  those  things  that  are 
wrong  so  that  when  the  time  comes  for 
you  to  make  that  change  you  can  say 
as  Paul  said  to  Timothy:  "I  have  fought 
a  good  fight,  I  have  finished  my  course, 
I  have  kept  the  faith: 

"Henceforth  there  is  laid  up  for  me  a 
crown  of  righteousness,  which  the  Lord, 
the  righteous  judge,  shall  give  me  at 
that  day:  and  not  to  me  only,  but  unto 


i  B.  ISAACSON  97 

all  them  also  that  love  his  appearing." 
(II  Timothy  4:7-8.) 

And  as  quoted  in  the  last  verse  of  the 
hymn,  "Come,  Let  Us  Anew": 

"O  that  each  in  the  day  of  his  coming 

may  say, 
'I  have  fought  my  way  thro' — 
I  have  finished  the  work  thou  did'st  give 

me  to  do.' 

O  that  each  from  his  Lord  may  receive 

the  glad  word: 
'Well  and  faithfully  done; 
Enter  into  my  joy  and  sit  down  on  my 

throne.' " 

That  reminds  me  of  a  prayer  that  I 
read  recently,  and  may  I  quote:  "Your 
day  is  almost  done.  When  the  night 
and  the  morning  meet,  it  will  be  an  un- 
alterable memory.  So  let  no  unkind 
word,  no  careless  doubting  thought,  no 
guilty  secret,  no  neglected  duty,  no  wisp 
of  jealous  fog  becloud  its  passing." 

May  God  grant  us  the  ability  to 
change  our  lives  where  they  need  to  be 
changed.  I  wonder  if  we  are  absolutely 
satisfied  with  the  life  we  are  leading, 
with  the  thoughts  we  are  thinking,  and 
with  the  deeds  that  we  are  doing. 
Everyone  of  us  can  thank  God,  our 
Heavenly  Father,  for  our  very  life,  and 
may  we  let  God  be  our  confidant — 
everyone  of  us — that  "thy  Father  which 
seeth  in  secret  himself  shall  reward  thee 
openly."  (Matt.  6:4.) 

As  we  pass  from  day  to  day,  each 
day  bringing  us  closer  to  the  time  when 
we  will  change  from  life  unto  death, 
may  we  ask:  "Heavenly  Father,  for  what 
purpose  hast  Thou  given  me  this  day? 
To  what  end  do  its  hours  point?  Help 
me  not  lightly  to  dismiss  this  question. 
Let  me  not  be  carried  unthinkingly  with 
the  drift  of  the  times.  Give  me  grace 
to  reflect  seriously  upon  the  course  of 
my  life,  for  days  are  numbered  and 
precious." 

May  this  group  here  today,  and  those 
who  listen  on  the  radio  and  television, 
resolve  to  live  better  hereafter  so  that 
we  can  die  better.  May  God  bless  every 
single  one  of  you,  that  you  may  live  as 
long  as  you  want  to  live  and  as  long  as 
you  ought  to  live.  Remember,  each  day 
of  life  is  so  precious  we  must  not  let  it 
carelessly  slip  away. 

I  bear  testimony  to  you  humbly  that 
God  lives,  that  he  is  our  Father,  that 


98 

Sunday,  October  11 

Jesus  Christ  is  our  beloved  Savior  and 
our  Elder  Brother.  Oh,  how  grateful 
we  should  be  for  the  power  and  the 
blessings  of  the  Holy  Priesthood  of  God 
that  are  constantly  in  our  midst  today. 
Oh,  how  important  it  is  to  have  the 
faith  and  ability  to  recognize,  not  only 
our  blessings,  but  the  source  of  those 
blessings. 

God  bless  everyone  of  you,  I  humbly 
pray  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ.  Amen. 

President  David  O.  McKay: 

He  to  whom  we  have  just  listened  is 
Bishop  Thorpe  B.  Isaacson,  a  member 
of  the  Presiding  Bishopric  of  the  Church. 
The  Choir  and  Congregation  will  now 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


Third  Day 

sing,  "Redeemer  of  Israel,"  Richard  P. 
Condie  conducting.  After  the  singing, 
Elder  Henry  D.  Taylor,  Assistant  to  the 
Twelve,  will  address  us. 


The  Congregation  and  the  Tabernacle 
Choir  joined  in  singing  the  hymn,  "Re- 
deemer of  Israel." 


President  David  O.  McKay: 

We  will  now  hear  from  Elder  Henry 
D.  Taylor,  Assistant  to  the  Twelve.  He 
will  be  followed  by  Elder  Levi  Edgar 
Young  of  the  First  Council  of  the 
Seventy. 


ELDER  HENRY  D.  TAYLOR 

Assistant  to  the  Council  of  the  Twelve  Apostles 


The  calling  of  Brother  Moyle  to  the 
First  Presidency,  and  that  of  President 
Hunter  to  the  Council  of  the  Twelve, 
is  added  evidence,  my  brethren  and  sis- 
ters, that  this  Church  is  guided  and 
directed  by  revelation  and  by  inspiration. 
These  are  two  wonderful  men.  I  know 
the  Lord  has  a  great  mission  for  them 
to  perform. 

We  live  today,  my  brethren  and  sis- 
ters, in  a  world  of  unrest  and  insecurity, 
where  mistrust,  suspicion,  and  disloyalty 
exist  between  nations  as  well  as  among 
individuals.  Loyalty  to  oneself  and  to 
the  principles  he  believes  to  be  true, 
is  a  noble  virtue. 

In  Shakespeare's  Hamlet  is  expressed 
this  impressive  thought:  "To  thine  own 
self  be  true,  And  it  must  follow,  as  the 
night  the  day,  Thou  canst  not  then  be 
false  to  any  man.  .  .  ." 

Latter-day  Saints  should  be  taught 
early  in  youth  the  fundamental  princi- 
ples of  the  gospel.  These  teachings  of 
the  Savior,  if  observed,  will  serve  as  an 
anchor  and  guide  throughout  life,  and 
bring  happiness  to  the  individual. 

We  have  been  privileged  to  come  to 
this  earth  to  be  tested  and  proved,  to 
see  if  we  will  be  loyal  and  true  to  the 
commandments  given  by  our  Heavenly 
Father.  We  have  the  responsibility  of 
being  loyal  to  righteous  and  correct 
principles.  Satan  and  his  followers  are 
zealous  and  loyal,  but  to  causes  and 


principles  which  are  unrighteous  and 
opposed  to  the  will  of  our  Heavenly 
Father. 

There  are  two  opposing  forces  oper- 
ating to  win  the  souls  of  the  children 
of  men — one  force  for  good,  and  one  for 
evil.  The  Prophet  Mormon  gave  a  test 
that  may  be  applied  in  determining  one 
from  the  other,  when  he  said:  "Where- 
fore, all  things  which  are  good  cometh 
of  God;  and  that  which  is  evil  cometh 
of  the  devil;  for  the  devil  is  an  enemy 
unto  God,  and  fighteth  against  him 
continually,  .  .  . 

"For  behold,  the  Spirit  of  Christ  is 
given  to  every  man,  that  he  may  know 
good  from  evil;  .  .  ."  (Moroni  7:12,  16.) 
Through  righteous  living  we  may  have 
the  companionship  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
which  will  assist  us  in  discerning  right 
from  wrong,  good  from  evil. 

Joseph  Smith  was  permitted  to  be- 
hold the  contrast  between  the  glory  of 
God  and  the  power  of  darkness,  and 
received  this  explanation:  "All  this  is 
shown,  the  good  and  the  evil,  the  holy 
and  impure,  the  glory  of  God  and  the 
power  of  darkness,  that  you  may  know 
hereafter  the  two  powers  and  never  be 
influenced  or  overcome  by  that  wicked 
one.  .  .  .  You  have  beheld  the  power 
of  God  manifested  and  the  power  of 
satan:  and  you  see  that  there  is  nothing 
that  is  desirable  in  the  works  of  dark- 
ness; that  they  cannot  bring  happiness; 


ELDER  LEVI  EDGAR  YOUNG 


99 


that  those  who  are  overcome  therewith 
are  miserable,  while  on  the  other  hand 
the  righteous  are  blessed  with  peace  in 
the  kingdom  of  God  where  joy  unspeak- 
able surrounds  them."  (Comprehensive 
History,  vol.  1,  page  78.) 

The  Savior  came  to  earth  with  a 
mission  to  perform.  He  was  loyal  to 
the  confidence  and  trust  placed  in  him. 
This  was  in  spite  of  his  awareness  of 
the  magnitude  of  his  mission,  including 
the  atonement.  As  the  hour  of  the  be- 
trayal and  his  great  sacrifice  drew  near, 
he  entered  the  Garden  of  Gethsemane, 
and  in  anguish  prayed  to  our  Heavenly 
Father,  saying:  ".  .  .  O  my  Father,  if  it 
be  possible,  let  this  cup  pass  from  me: 
nevertheless  not  as  I  will,  but  as  thou 
wilt."  (Matthew  26:39.) 

The  Prophet  Joseph  Smith  fully 
realized  the  fate  that  awaited  him  and 
could  have  undoubtedly  escaped  martyr- 
dom by  going  West  beyond  the  reach 
of  his  enemies.  Rather,  he  chose  to 
return  to  Nauvoo  and  Carthage,  being 
loyal  to  the  Saints  he  loved  so  dearly, 
and  who  returned  his  love  and  affection. 
Many  of  his  associates  pleaded  for  the 
privilege  of  accompanying  him  and  his 
brother  Hyrum  to  the  jail,  aware  that 
death  could  easily  result.  Willard 
Richards  and  John  Taylor  were  granted 
this  permission,  and  when  the  armed 
mob  stormed  the  jail,  they  fought  val- 
iantly with  all  their  might  and  strength 
to  defend  the  Prophet  and  Hyrum.  John 
Taylor  was  seriously  wounded  in  the 
assault.  This  display  of  loyalty  and 
affection  could  well  impress  and  inspire 
each  of  us.  These  men  were  ready  to 
give  their  very  lives  for  those  they  loved. 


They  believed  the  words  of  the  Savior 
when  he  said:  "This  is  my  command- 
ment, That  ye  love  one  another,  as  I 
have  loved  you. 

"Greater  love  hath  no  man  than  this, 
that  a  man  lay  down  his  life  for  his 
friends."  (John  15:12-13.) 

As  we  come  into  your  stakes  each 
week  to  attend  quarterly  conferences, 
we  are  deeply  impressed  with  the  devo- 
tion, steadfastness,  and  firmness  of  you 
good  people  in  the  wards,  stakes,  and 
missions  of  the  Church.  We  are  pleased 
to  observe  your  love  and  loyalty  for  the 
gospel  and  for  the  inspired  leaders  of 
the  Church  and  of  your  desire  to  sustain 
them  and  assist  them  in  building  up  the 
kingdom  of  God  here  upon  the  earth. 

To  President  McKay  and  the  other 
brethren  in  the  First  Presidency,  I  ex- 
press my  love,  and  pledge  them  my 
loyalty  and  support.  I  sustain  them 
with  all  my  heart. 

May  we  all  be  blessed  with  the  ability 
to  discern  good  from  evil  and  have 
the  courage  and  desire  to  be  loyal  to 
those  principles  which  are  righteous, 
I  humbly  pray  in  the  name  of  Jesus 
Christ.  Amen. 

President  David  O.  McKay: 

Elder  Henry  D.  Taylor,  to  whom  you 
have  just  listened,  is  one  of  the  Assistants 
to  the  Twelve  Apostles,  and  formerly 
president  of  the  California  Mission.  We 
shall  now  hear  from  Elder  Levi  Edgar 
Young  of  the  First  Council  of  Seventy. 
He  will  be  followed  by  Elder  S.  Dilworth 
Young  of  the  same  Council. 


ELDER  LEVI  EDGAR  YOUNG 

Of  the  First  Council  of  the  Seventy 


My  brethren  and  sisters,  we  are  all 
very  glad  to  assemble  in  this  great  con- 
ference of  the  Church,  and  oh,  the  won- 
derful messages  we  have  received,  and 
the  testimonies  that  strengthen  our 
lives. 

I  wish  to  say  a  few  words  about  Presi- 
dent Joseph  Young.  My  grandfather 
was  chosen  by  the  Prophet  Joseph  Smith, 
and  when  grandfather  met  the  Prophet 
for  the  first  time,  the  Prophet  told  him 


that  the  Lord  had  already  a  place  for 
him  in  the  priesthood. 

Grandfather  was  a  Methodist  min- 
ister. He  had  become  a  preacher,  going 
through  the  different  parts  of  western 
Ohio,  then  crossing  Lake  Erie  into  Can- 
ada, holding  meetings,  preaching  the 
Methodist  beliefs.  Then  one  morning 
he  was  holding  a  meeting,  and  he  saw 
his  brother,  Brigham  Young  in  the 
audience,  and  he  could  not  understand 


100 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


Sunday,  October  11 

it  at  first.  Grandfather  was  the  elder 
of  the  two.  After  the  meeting,  Brigham 
walked  up  to  his  brother,  Joseph,  and 
said,  "Joseph,  I  have  found  the  gospel. 
Come  with  me." 

Joseph  immediately  felt  the  truth  of 
what  his  brother  said,  and  taking  him 
by  the  arm  and  bidding  his  congregation 
good-bye,  they  made  their  way  back  to 
Kirtland,  Ohio,  where  Grandfather  met 
the  Prophet.  He  was  baptized  imme- 
diately, and  within  a  few  days  the 
Seventy  organization  was  made,  and 
Grandfather  found  himself  in  the  First 
Council  of  the  Seventy.  He  was  always 
so  proud  of  it.  He  became  a  wonderful 
teacher  and  went  among  the  people  in  a 
simple  childlike  manner.  He  was  a 
great  reader  of  the  Bible  and  the  Book 
of  Mormon,  the  Doctrine  and  Cove- 
nants, and  the  Pearl  of  Great  Price.  He 
loved  literature,  and  because  of  his 
prayers  to  God,  he  was  able  to  grasp 
the  meaning,  and  he  used  to  say  to  the 
people:  "That  is  a  simple  thought,  isn't 
it?"  And  the  way  he  said  it,  the  Saints 
agreed,  and  it  became  known  that  the 
gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  is  the  greatest  in 
thought  of  today,  and  yet  so  great  that 
it  becomes  simple  and  pure — an  ideal 
for  the  person  who  goes  to  God  and 
prays  for  understanding. 

Grandfather  Young  passed  away  in 
1884,  and  then  his  son,  Seymour,  suc- 
ceeded him.  It  is  a  story  that  becomes 
very  personal,  I  realize,  but  one  of  the 
seventies  asked  if  I  would  say  something 
about  Joseph  Young  in  my  address.  He 
was  a  great  reader,  and  he  had  come 
to  know  the  story  of  Israel,  and  taught 
it  to  the  people.  He  was  a  reader  of 
literature,  as  I  have  said,  especially  Eng- 
lish literature,  and  just  after  the  Prophet 
Joseph  Smith  had  asked  that  some  of 
the  people  learn  Greek  and  Latin, 
Grandfather  was  learning  those  lan- 
guages. 

I  must  not  take  too  much  time,  but 
I  will  read  these  few  words  to  you.  "To 
learn  is  to  bring  into  your  being  a 
thought  that  gives  strength  and  a  better 
understanding  of  the  power  of  your  own 
mind."  That  was  what  Grandfather 
used  to  teach.  Go  to  your  Bible  again 
and  turn  to  verse  or  chapter  that  you 
have  already  learned  to  love,  and  read 
it  again.  Pick  out  some  noble  lesson; 
learn  the  substance  of  its  thought.  Who 


Third  Day 

wrote  the  words?  Where  are  they  found 
and  why  were  they  written?  That  is 
for  us  all — the  words,  when  were  they 
written  and  why? 

In  time,  an  incentive  to  learn  more 
and  more  will  be  the  result  of  our  study. 
The  beauty  of  it  is  that  you  are  learning 
for  yourself.  You  become  your  own 
teacher.  Try  this  exercise  every  day  for 
a  few  minutes  and  you  will  be  surprised 
at  the  number  of  noble  truths  you  will 
learn.  The  worth  of  this  self-teaching  is 
the  habit  of  thought  and  attention  it 
stimulates  within  us.  The  steadfast 
pursuit  of  such  an  ideal  is  the  truest 
recreation  that  we  can  have,  and  is  the 
road  to  a  personal  understanding  of  the 
gospel. 

"My  brethren  and  sisters,"  said  Joseph 
Young  one  time,  "if  you  can  learn  how 
to  learn,  you  have  acquired  something 
that  will  make  of  you  a  real  teacher. 
You  have  acquired  a  habit  that  will  not 
only  give  you  much  joy  every  day,  but 
will  also  strengthen  your  character  and 
lead  you  on  daily  to  greater  truths  and 
more  abundant  life." 

It  is  our  own  study,  with  faith  and 
prayer  to  God,  that  gives  us  strength, 
that  gives  us  life  and  light;  and  there- 
fore we  are  ready  to  become  more  de- 
voted readers  of  the  great  Church  works. 
Remember  the  words  of  Jesus:  "Search 
the  scriptures;  for  in  them  ye  think  ye 
have  eternal  life:  and  they  are  they 
which  testify  of  me."  (John  5:39.) 

To  know  Christ  is  life  eternal.  To 
become  like  Christ  is  happiness  ever- 
lasting. We  know  the  steps  that  Jesus 
trod:  obedience,  devotion,  purity,  truth- 
fulness, kindness,  resistance  of  tempta- 
tion, self-sacrifice.  It  was  John  Ruskin 
who  wrote: 

"He  only  is  advancing  in  life  whose 
heart  is  getting  softer,  whose  blood 
warmer,  whose  brain  quicker,  whose 
spirit  is  entering  into  living  peace." 

And  the  men  who  have  this  life  in 
them  are  the  true  lords  and  kings  of 
the  earth. 


God  bless  us  in  this 
of   learning   the  gospel 
plicity,  for  how  true  it  is  th 
thoughts  become  simple 
and  spirits  as  we  approach 
and  prayer.    I  pray  that 
may  all  become  wise  and 
of  the  gospel.  Amen. 


holy  purpose 
in   its  sim- 

at  the  greatest 

to  our  souls 
God  by  faith 
we  Seventies 

good  teachers 


ELDER  S.  DILWORTH  YOUNG 


101 


President  David  O.  McKay:  grandfather  as  Senior  President  of  the 

First  Council  of  Seventy.  We  shall  now 
We  have  just  listened  to  Elder  Levi     hear  from  Elder  S.  Dilworth  Young  of 
Edgar  Young,  grandson  of  Joseph  Young,     the  same  Council.  He  will  be  followed 
who  holds  the  same  position  as  his     by  Elder  Sterling  W.  Sill. 

ELDER  S.  DILWORTH  YOUNG 

Of  the  First  Council  of  the  Seventy 


It  seems  to  me  that  there  have  been 
two  themes  in  this  conference.  One  is 
our  love  and  devotion  and  our  deter- 
mination to  serve  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ'. 
The  other  is  a  great  concern  for  our 
children.  May  I  speak  briefly  on  the 
second  of  these  two  themes?  May  I 
quote  you  a  scripture,  briefly? 

".  .  .  inasmuch  as  parents  have  chil- 
dren in  Zion  .  .  .  that  teach  them  not 
to  understand  the  doctrine  of  repentance, 
faith  in  Christ  the  Son  of  the  living 
God,  and  of  baptism  and  the  gift  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  by  the  laying  on  of  the 
hands,  when  eight  years  old,  the  sin  be 
upon  the  heads  of  the  parents."  (D&C 
68:25.) 

That  was  quoted  twice  earlier  in  this 
conference.  I  would  like  to  add  that 
we  should  also  teach  children  ethical 
living.  I  believe  that  the  tendency  of 
the  times  and  the  forces  of  evil  around 
us  are  so  great  that  unless  we  unite  on 
our  objectives,  and  obtain  a  program  to 
which  we  can  expose  our  children  and 
have  them  unite  with  us,  we  can  easily 
fail  in  this  great  project  of  keeping  our 
children  in  the  Church.  Unity  of  ideals 
and  purposes  is  hard  to  achieve.  May  I 
illustrate? 

Many  years  ago  I  was  invited  to  a 
high  school  to  talk  to  a  group  of  parents 
who  were  present  on  a  "leadership  week" 
basis.  It  was  not  connected  with  Brig- 
ham  Young  University  but  was  a  local 
affair.  There  was  invited  to  accom- 
pany me,  and  to  take  part  in  this  dis- 
cussion, a  psychologist  from  one  of  our 
colleges.  We  both  went,  and  I  was  the 
first  speaker.  I  can  remember  how  hard 
I  labored  to  convince  these  parents  that 
if  they  wanted  to  have  their  children 
obey,  they  themselves  would  have  to 
obey  the  principles  which  they  espoused. 

One  of  the  subjects  they  brought  up 
was  the  matter  of  driving  cars  when 
under  age.  Everybody  knows  that  the 
state  law  is  clear  in  this  respect — sixteen 


years  of  age  is  the  legal  limit  under 
which  a  child  should  not  drive.  Many 
fathers  had  been  beset  with  importun- 
ing from  their  children.  Many  fathers 
and  mothers  had  allowed  their  children 
to  drive,  even  under  legal  age. 

I  expressed  myself  quite  vehemently 
on  the  subject  and  said  I  thought  it  was 
wicked,  really,  for  a  parent  either  to 
set  an  example  of  breaking  or  allow  a 
child  to  break  the  law — not  because  of 
that  particular  law  being  either  good 
or  bad, — but  because  the  tendency  to 
break  law  would  be  implanted  in  that 
child,  and  perhaps  sometime  he  would 
choose  to  flaunt  a  law  more  serious  and 
important. 

My  companion  followed  me,  and  this 
was  his  solution.  He  said:  "I  will  tell 
you  how  I  solved  that  problem  in  my 
family.  My  boy  is  fourteen  and  a  half 
years  of  age.  I  took  him  down  to  the 
bureau  where  they  issue  licenses,  told  the 
folks  he  was  sixteen,  and  got  him  a 
drivers'  license  so  that  he  could  drive 
legally  on  the  highway." 

Another  scripture  (this  is  from  Paul): 
"Children,  obey  your  parents  in  the 
Lord:  for  this  is  right. 

"Honour  thy  father  and  thy  mother 
(which  is  the  first  commandment  with 
promise)  that  it  may  be  well  with  thee, 
and  thou  mayest  live  long  on  the  earth. 

"And  ye  fathers,  provoke  not  your 
children  to  wrath:  but  bring  them  up 
in  the  nurture  and  admonition  of  the 
Lord."  (Eph.  6:1-4.) 

I  think  we  might  just  as  well  recog- 
nize the  fact  that  while  we  parents  are 
"in  for  it,"  so  to  speak,  if  I  might  use  a 
slang  term,  if  we  do  not  teach  our  chil- 
dren, I  think  the  children  are  equally 
responsible  to  do  a  little  for  themselves 
to  have  respect  for  their  parents,  and 
to  learn  to  obey  their  parents.  It  is  a 
two-way  thing.  If  parents  are  going  to 
teach  children,  the  children  ought  also 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


102 

Sunday,  October  11 

to  learn  that  they  must  be  obedient 
to  their  parents. 

I  have  another  example.  A  certain 
man  living  in  my  town  had  a  son.  The 
son  was  invited  to  join  a  high  school 
club.  This  high  school  club  was  one 
of  a  number.  He  wanted  to  have  some 
social  life  with  the  other  boys,  I  suppose, 
and  after  he  talked  to  his  father  about 
it  decided  he  would  join.  After  a  while 
there  was  to  be  an  initiation. 

He  went  to  his  father  and  said, 
"Father,  I  need  some  advice.  I  have 
heard  in  a  roundabout  way  that  they 
do  things  to  you  at  these  initiations. 
What  would  be  your  advice  to  me  as 
to  what  I  ought  to  do?" 

The  father  said  to  him,  "Do  not  let 
them  do  anything  to  you  that  will  in- 
volve your  dignity  as  my  son  or  as  a 
man.  Do  not  let  them  compromise  you 
in  your  priesthood,  in  your  family,  or 
in  your  good  name." 

So  he  went.  The  story  comes  to  me 
that  it  was  a  cold  winter's  night,  and 
the  boys  of  the  club,  without  chaperon- 
age,  had  hired  a  cabin  in  the  canyon 
near  our  town,  and  there  they  prepared 
to  initiate  their  friends.  I  suppose  the 
father  had  an  anxious  moment  or  two 
as  he  sat  through  the  evening,  wonder- 
ing what  was  going  to  happen.  The 
boy  left  him  and  took  his  sleeping  bag 
and  his  sleeping  equipment,  because 
this  was  to  be  an  all-night  affair.  The 
thermometer  measured  zero  during  the 
night. 

About  two  o'clock  in  the  morning  the 
father  said  he  heard  the  front  door 
open.  He  got  up  to  see  who  was  enter- 
ing the  house  without  permission,  and 


Third  Day 

there  stood  his  boy,  sleeping  bag  slung 
on  his  back,  overcoat  on.  He  said, 
"What's  the  matter,  Son?" 

The  boy  said,  "They  tried  it,  Dad, 
and  I  fought  them  off  and  came  home." 
He  had  walked  nine  miles  in  that  zero 
weather.  After  he  got  warm,  the  boy 
retired.  The  father  went  upstairs, 
stood  at  the  foot  of  his  son's  bed,  and 
said,  "You've  done  well.  I  am  glad 
you  are  an  obedient  son." 

Now,  fathers  must  make  decisions. 
Mothers  must  make  decisions.  But  so 
must  sons  and  daughters.  If  the  sons 
and  daughters  do  not  make  correct  de- 
cisions, they  are  more  at  fault  than 
their  fathers  and  mothers,  if  their  par- 
ents have  taught  them  what  is  right.  A 
most  important  purpose  of  this  Church 
is  to  bring  up  children  in  righteousness 
and  to  keep  parents  righteous  also. 

I  bear  my  witness  that  President 
McKay  is  a  prophet  of  the  Living  God, 
and  I  bear  witness  also  that  his  great 
concern,  if  I  might  be  so  bold  as  to 
interpret  him,  is  for  the  youth  of  Zion, 
that  they  might  grow  in  righteousness 
and  carry  the  torch  of  this  Church  until 
it  fills  the  earth. 

I  humbly  pray  we  may  find  the  right 
and  the  way  to  do  it.  In  the  name  of 
Jesus  Christ.  Amen. 

President  David  O.  McKay: 

We  have  just  listened  to  Elder  S.  Dil- 
worth  Young  of  the  First  Council  of 
Seventy.  Elder  Sterling  W.  Sill,  As- 
sistant to  the  Twelve,  will  now  address 
us,  and  he  will  be  followed  by  Elder 
Hugh  B.  Brown. 


ELDER  STERLING  W.  SILL 

Assistant  to  the  Council  of  the  Twelve  Apostles 


Recently  a  seat  companion  in  an  air- 
plane was  telling  me  something  about 
the  very  interesting  science  of  ballistics. 
He  pointed  out  that  when  a  bullet  is 
shot  through  a  gun  barrel,  the  bullet 
receives  a  set  of  characteristic  markings 
which  will  forever  identify  it  with  the 
particular  gun  barrel  through  which  it 
is  shot. 

Our  conversation  then  moved  to  an- 
other set  of  facts  which  might  be  called 
mental  ballistics  or  spiritual  ballistics. 


That  is,  when  an  idea  is  passed  through 
the  mind,  the  mind  receives  a  set  of 
characteristic  markings;  for  example, 
when  one  thinks  negative  thoughts,  he 
gets  a  negative  mind.  If  he  thinks  de- 
praved thoughts,  his  mind  becomes  de- 
praved. If  he  thinks  damned  thoughts, 
a  damned  mind  will  be  the  result.  Solo- 
mon was  speaking  as  a  kind  of  ballistics 
expert  when  he  said,  "For  as  he  [a  man] 
thinketh  in  his  heart  so  is  he.  .  . ."  (Prov. 
23:7.) 


ELDER  STERLING  W.  SILL 


103 


In  the  course  of  our  journey  we  were 
obliged  to  lay  over  for  an  hour  between 
planes.  During  our  wait  we  made  an 
examination  of  the  kind  of  literature 
that  was  being  distributed  through  the 
magazine  stand  in  the  airport.  We  were 
impressed — as  anyone  must  be  impressed, 
with  the  fact  that  one  of  the  most  serious 
problems  of  our  day,  whether  considered 
from  the  point  of  view  of  the  church  or 
the  nation  generally,  is  the  very  low- 
grade  of  ideas  which  makes  up  such  a 
substantial  part  of  our  mental  diet. 
William  James  once  said,  "The  mind 
is  made  up  by  what  it  feeds  upon."  We 
would  not  think  of  feeding  our  bodies 
contaminated  food,  and  yet  we  often 
feed  our  minds  and  our  souls  with 
contaminated  thoughts,  and  thereby  we 
run  contaminated  emotions  through  our 
hearts,  sometimes  with  fatal  results. 

One  of  our  most  urgent  present-day 
needs  is  to  houseclean  our  thinking. 
Because  two  opposite  thoughts  cannot 
co-exist  in  the  mind  at  the  same  moment, 
the  best  way  to  get  rid  of  undesirable 
thoughts  is  by  antidoting  them  with 
good.  The  best  way  to  get  darkness 
out  of  a  room  is  to  fill  it  with  light.  The 
best  way  to  kill  the  negative  is  to  culti- 
vate the  positive,  and  the  best  way  to 
improve  our  lives  is  to  improve  our 
thoughts.  And  one  of  the  best  ways  to 
improve  our  thoughts  is  to  develop  a 
love  of  great  literature. 

Young  Abraham  Lincoln  once  said, 
"What  I  want  to  know  is  in  books,  and 
my  best  friend  is  the  one  who  will  get 
me  a  book  I  haven't  read."  And  in  one 
of  the  most  authoritative  voices  of  latter- 
day  scripture  the  Lord  said,  "It  is  im- 
possible for  a  man  to  be  saved  in  ig- 
norance." (D&C  131:6.)  And  it  is  just 
as  impossible  to  be  saved  by  reading  the 
kind  of  sex  stories  and  murder  mysteries 
that  makes  up  such  a  large  part  of  our 
contemporary  literature. 

This  morning  I  would  like  to  share 
with  you  some  quotations  having  to  do 
with  the  values  of  great  ideas  and  stimu- 
lating ideals  as  they  are  made  available 
to  us  through  good  books.  Someone  has 
said,  "Books  are  among  life's  most 
precious  possessions.  They  are  the  most 
remarkable  creation  of  man.  Nothing 
else  that  man  builds  ever  lasts.  Monu- 
ments fall,  civilizations  perish,  but  books 
continue." 

"The  perusal  of  a  great  book  is  as  it 


were  an  interview  with  the  noblest  men 
of  past  ages  who  have  written  it." 

Charles  Kingsley  once  said,  "There  is 
nothing  more  wonderful  than  a  book. 
It  may  be  a  message  to  us  from  the  dead, 
from  human  souls  we  never  saw  who 
lived  perhaps  thousands  of  miles  away, 
and  yet  these  little  sheets  of  paper  speak 
to  us,  arouse  us,  teach  us,  open  our 
hearts  and  in  turn  open  their  hearts  to 
us  like  brothers." 

"Without  books  God  is  silent,  justice 
dormant,  philosophy  lame." 

John  Milton  said,  "Books  are  not  dead 
things  but  contain  a  certain  potency  of 
life  in  them  as  active  as  the  soul  whose 
progeny  they  are.  They  preserve  as  in 
a  vial,  the  purest  efficacy  of  the  living 
intellect  that  bred  them." 

Of  course,  the  great  literature  of  the 
world  centers  in  the  Holy  Bible.  The 
writings  of  Shakespeare  alone  contain 
some  550  Bible  quotations  and  allusions. 
The  works  of  Tennyson  have  330  Bible 
references.  Emerson's  works  are  filled 
with  Bible  ideas,  and  the  New  Testa- 
ment records  eighty-nine  occasions  when 
the  Master  himself  quoted  from  the  great 
scriptures. 

Think  of  the  effect  that  the  Bible  has 
had  in  individual  lives.  Looking  back- 
ward we  see  young  Abraham  Lincoln 
lying  before  the  open  fire  reading  the 
Bible,  and  it  is  easy  to  follow  the  Bible 
influence  in  his  life  throughout  his  en- 
tire career.  One  Bible  passage  in  the 
mind  of  another  young  man  by  the 
name  of  Joseph  Smith  helped  to  change 
the  religious  history  of  the  world.  • 

Or,  think  of  the  effect  that  Bible 
teaching  has  had  in  the  rise  and  fall  of 
nations.  Most  of  the  nations  of  the  past 
have  fallen  because  they  have  disobeyed 
divine  law.  Certainly  this  will  continue 
to  be  a  determining  factor  in  every  na- 
tional success. 

With  keen  insight  Daniel  Webster 
once  made  this  prophetic  statement,  "If 
we  abide  by  the  principles  taught  in  the 
Bible,  our  country  will  go  on  prosper- 
ing, but  if  we,  or  our  children,  shall 
neglect  its  teachings  and  its  authority, 
no  one  can  tell  how  suddenly  some 
calamity  may  overwhelm  us  and  bury 
all  of  our  glory  in  profound  obscurity." 
We  inscribe  our  coins  with  the  motto 
"In  God  We  Trust."  At  least  we  ought 
to  know  the  kind  of  God  we  are  talking 
about. 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


104 

Sunday,  October  11 

It  has  been  pointed  out  that,  "We  do 
not  know  what  the  future  holds,  but  we 
do  know  who  holds  the  future."  And 
we  may  be  sure  that  our  national  pros- 
perity as  well  as  our  individual  exalta- 
tion depends  upon  how  well  we  utilize 
this  great  reservoir  of  spiritual  truth. 
In  our  uncertain  age  we  need  the  great 
scriptures  as  never  before. 

Our  problem,  of  course,  is  that  no 
matter  how  great  our  literature  may  be, 
even  if  we  have  the  word  of  God  himself 
spoken  in  our  own  day,  it  doesn't  help 
us  very  much  unless  we  know  what  was 
said  and  then  govern  ourselves  accord- 
ingly. 

The  fifth  chapter  of  the  book  of  Moses 
recounts  how  God  tried  to  teach  the 
posterity  of  Adam  to  live  the  principles 
of  the  gospel.  But  Satan  came  among 
them  saying,  "Believe  it  not,"  and  many 
believed  it  not.  This  same  problem  has 
been  plaguing  the  world  ever  since. 

One  of  our  great  Articles  of  Faith  says, 
"We  believe  the  Bible  to  be  the  word  of 
God  as  far  as  it  is  translated  correctly; 
we  also  believe  the  Book  of  Mormon  to 
be  the  word  of  God."  But  not  only  is 
Satan  among  us  saying,  "Believe  it  not," 
he  goes  much  further  and  also  says, 
"Don't  even  read  it."  And  readership 
surveys  show  that  most  people  in  and 
out  of  the  Church  are  following  that 
unfortunate  direction.  There  are  very 
few  people  who  regularly  read  the  Bible 
with  a  purpose,  and  the  vast  majority 
read  it  almost  not  at  all. 

It  was  reported  that  a  Sunday  School 
teacher  once  asked  the  members  of  her 
class  if  they  knew  what  was  in  the  Bible 
and  one  little  girl  held  up  her  hand. 
The  teacher  said,  "All  right,  Mary  Jane, 
you  stand  up  and  tell  the  class  what  is 
in  the  Bible."  And  Mary  Jane  said, 
"There's  a  lock  of  baby's  hair  in  it; 
some  pressed  violets  from  sister's  beau 
are  in  it;  and  some  of  grandmother's 
love  letters  are  in  it."  We  ought  to  re- 
member that  there  are  some  things  in 
the  Bible  that  Mary  Jane  apparently  had 
never  heard  about. 

First,  the  doctrines  of  eternal  life  are 
in  it.  The  Bible  teaches  us  about  God, 
our  Eternal  Father,  and  what  our  rela- 
tionship to  him  ought  to  be.  Lord 
Calvin  was  once  asked  to  name  the 
greatest  discovery  that  had  ever  been 
made,  and  he  replied,  "The  greatest 
discovery  that  is  ever  made  is  when  a 


Third  Day 

man  discovers  God."  Jesus  indicated 
this  same  truth  when  he  prayed,  "And 
this  is  life  eternal,  that  they  might  know 
thee,  the  only  true  God,  and  Jesus  Christ 
whom  thou  hast  sent."  (John  17:3.) 

Think  of  the  advantage  that  young 
Timothy  had  over  many  of  our  children. 
Paul  said  to  Timothy,  ".  . .  from  a  child 
thou  hast  known  the  holy  scriptures, 
which  are  able  to  make  thee  wise  unto 
salvation  through  faith  which  is  in 
Christ  Jesus."  Then  he  said,  "All  scrip- 
ture is  given  by  inspiration  of  God,  and 
is  profitable  for  doctrine,  for  reproof,  for 
correction,  for  instruction  in  righteous- 
ness:" (II  Tim.  3:15-16.) 

Think  of  the  profit  our  lives  would 
show  if  we  could  absorb  the  lessons  of 
the  great  parables,  or  the  philosophy  of 
the  Golden  Rule,  or  the  spirit  of  man's 
individual  responsibility  to  God,  or  the 
stimulation  contained  in  the  doctrine  of 
eternal  progression.  Or,  suppose  that  we 
get  God's  answers  to  life's  great  ques- 
tions including  the  one  expressed  by  the 
rich  young  ruler  when  he  asked,  "Good 
Master,  what  shall  I  do  to  inherit  eternal 
life?"  (Luke  18:18.) 

There  are  some  important  "thou  shalt 
nots,"  in  the  Bible.  The  Lord  has  said 
that  there  are  some  things  that  we  just 
must  not  do.  Most  of  the  Ten  Com- 
mandments come  in  this  category.  The 
Bible  tells  us  of  forbidden  fruit,  of  for- 
bidden ground,  of  forbidden  desires,  and 
forbidden  thoughts.  As  Cecil  B.  De  Mille 
has  pointed  out,  "It  is  not  possible  for 
us  to  break  the  Ten  Commandments,  we 
can  only  break  ourselves  against  them." 

There  is  a  set  of  what  someone  has 
called  "promissory  notes"  in  the  Bible. 
Every  commandment  has  a  blessing  at- 
tached for  faithful  performance.  But 
the  Lord  has  said,  "I,  the  Lord  am  bound 
when  ye  do  what  I  say;  but  when  ye  do 
not  what  I  say,  ye  have  no  promise." 
(D&C  82:10.)  He  said,  "I  command 
and  men  obey  not;  I  revoke  and  they  re- 
ceive not  the  blessing."  {Ibid.,  58:32.) 
That  means  that  all  blessings  do  not 
apply  to  us  individually.  Only  those 
laws  apply  to  us  that  we  actually  live; 
for  example,  the  Lord  said  through 
Malachi,  "Bring  ye  all  the  tithes  into 
the  storehouse  .  .  .  ,"  then  he  promised, 
"and  prove  me  now  herewith  ...  if  I 
will  not  open  you  the  windows  of 
heaven,  and  pour  you  out  a  blessing, 
that  there  shall  not  be  room  enough  to 


ELDER  STERLING  W.  SILL 


105 


receive  it."  (Mai.  3:10.)  But  that  does 
not  apply  to  us,  unless  we  pay  our 
tithing. 

Suppose  that  we  tear  out  of  the  Bible 
those  portions  which  do  not  apply  to 
us  personally.  That  is,  if  we  do  not 
keep  the  Sabbath  day  holy,  or  if  we  fail 
to  observe  the  laws  of  honesty,  chastity, 
temperance,  repentance,  and  baptism; 
then  we  had  better  tear  those  parts  out 
of  the  scripture,  so  we  will  not  deceive 
ourselves  unnecessarily  by  imagining 
that  they  apply  to  us.  It  would  be  in- 
teresting for  each  of  us  to  find  out  just 
how  big  our  own  particular  version  of 
the  Bible  would  be  under  these  cir- 
cumstances. Someone  was  once  asked 
whether  or  not  he  was  a  Christian  and 
he  said  he  was,  in  spots.  I  suppose  that 
it  is  better  to  be  a  Christian  in  spots 
than  not  to  be  a  Christian  at  all.  But 
we  ought  to  keep  in  mind  that  when 
our  Christianity  comes  in  spots,  then  our 
blessings  will  come  in  spots  also. 

So  far  as  I  know,  the  most  thrilling, 
exciting  idea  there  is  in  the  world  is 
that  if  we  choose,  we  may  live  every 
single  one  of  these  great  commandments 
of  God,  and  thereby  we  may  make  our- 
selves payees  on  every  one  of  these 
scriptural  promissory  notes. 

There  is  great  inspiration  in  the  Bible. 
Some  time  we  express  an  important  hu- 
man need  by  saying,  "If  only  I  had 
someone  to  give  me  a  lift  occasionally, 
someone  to  look  up  to.  Someone  to  stir 
up  my  faith  and  wind  up  my  enthu- 
siasm." The  greatest  need  of  most  of 
us  is  just  for  some  plain,  honest-to- 
goodness  inspiration.  When  you  feel 
such  a  need,  suppose  that  you  turn  to 
this  great  volume  that  someone  has 
called,  "God's  Who's  Who";  that  is, 
the  scriptures  tell  of  the  men  who  are 
important  to  God,  and  they  are  the  ones 
who  can  best  upgrade  our  lives.  Thomas 
Carlyle  once  said,  "You  cannot  look 
upon  a  great  man  without  gaining  some- 
thing from  him."  Certainly  you  cannot 
study  the  lives  of  such  towering  figures 
as  Abraham  and  Moses,  Peter  and  Paul 
without  being  uplifted. 

Through  the  Bible  we  may  draw  upon 
the  accumulated  experiences  of  some  of 
the  greatest  men  who  ever  lived.  A 
consistent  student  of  the  scripture  gains 
a  new  power  to  think,  to  feel,  and  to 
enjoy.  It  is  a  source  of  the  most  exquisite 
and  enduring  delight  to  have  one's  mind 


stored  with  worth-while  thoughts,  beau- 
tiful expressions,  and  stimulating  ideals. 

Or,  we  may  relive  the  great  events  of 
the  Bible  in  our  own  lives.  Suppose, 
for  example,  that  in  imagination  we 
go  and  stand  upon  Mount  Sinai  where 
to  the  accompaniment  of  the  lightnings 
and  thunders  of  that  holy  mountain 
God  gave  Moses  the  law.  We  see  the 
great  prophet  as  he  came  down  from 
the  presence  of  Jehovah  with  the  glory 
of  God  resting  upon  him  with  such 
intensity  that  the  people  could  not  abide 
his  presence. 

Then  in  a  moment  we  might  choose 
to  pass  over  the  next  1500  years  and  go 
out  onto  the  hills  of  Judea  for  the  first 
Christmas,  and  with  that  angelic  com- 
pany celebrate  the  most  important  event 
that  ever  occurred  upon  this  earth,  the 
birth  of  the  Savior  of  the  world.  Then 
suppose  that  we  follow  him  during  those 
thirty-three  years  while  he  walked  the 
dusty  roads  of  this  earth  and  try  to 
learn  the  lessons  that  his  life  teaches. 

One  of  the  most  inspiring  lines  in  all 
of  the  scripture  was  spoken  by  the  mother 
of  Jesus  at  the  marriage  feast  at  Cana. 
She  said  to  the  servants,  "Whatsoever 
he  sayeth  unto  you,  do  it."  (John  2:5.) 
What  an  inspiring  motto  that  would 
make  for  our  individual  lives!  Or,  sup- 
pose that  in  feeling  we  go  with  him  into 
the  Garden  of  Gethsemane  while  under 
the  burden  of  our  sins  he  sweat  great 
drops  of  blood  at  every  pore.  Or,  we 
might  go  and  stand  with  uncovered 
heads  and  contrite  hearts  before  the  up- 
lifted cross  upon  that  barren  Judean 
hill,  while  this  thorn-crowned  Sufferer 
paid  the  last  full  measure  of  the  price 
of  our  redemption.  How  our  apprecia- 
tion would  be  increased  and  our  lives 
sanctified  by  a  sympathetic  reliving  of 
these  great  events  which  all  took  place 
in  our  interest.  We  must  not  blame  the 
people  of  that  day  alone  for  putting 
Jesus  to  death  upon  the  cross.  We  must 
also  bear  our  share  of  guilt.  It  was  your 
sins  and  mine  that  made  it  necessary 
for  him  to  volunteer  his  own  death.  But 
now  the  greatest  opportunity  of  our  lives 
is  to  see  to  it  that  his  atonement  was 
not  made  in  vain. 

Emerson  once  touched  upon  one  of 
our  greatest  present-day  dangers  when 
he  said,  "On  the  brink  of  an  ocean  of 
life  and  truth  we  are  miserably  dying. 
Sometimes  we  are  furthest  away  when 


106 

Sunday,  October  II 

we  are  closest  by."  Think  how  near 
they  were  who  lived  contemporaneously 
with  Jesus.  He  walked  among  them. 
They  heard  his  teachings.  They  knew 
of  his  miracles,  and  yet  they  were  so 
far  away.  When  Satan  came  among 
them  saying,  "Believe  it  not,"  they  pro- 
nounced their  own  doom  upon  them- 
selves by  saying,  "His  blood  be  upon  us 
and  our  children."  (Matt.  27:25.)  And 
so  it  has  been,  and  so  it  may  be  with  us. 

We  are  so  near.  We  have  the  great 
scriptures.  We  have  the  judgment  of 
time  shining  upon  the  life  of  Christ. 
The  gospel  has  been  restored  in  a  ful- 
ness never  before  known  in  the  world. 
We  have  the  written  testimony  of  many 
witnesses,  both  ancient  and  modern, 
and  yet  if  we  "believe  it  not"  we  may 
be  so  far  away.  Even  in  this  great  age 
of  wonders  and  enlightenment,  Satan 
is  still  inducing  us  to  mark  our  souls 
with   the    contamination    of  inferior 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


Third  Day 

thoughts,  whereas  the  greatest  oppor- 
tunity of  our  lives  is  to  read  more  and 
study  more  and  believe  more  and  live 
more,  that  word  of  God  which  is  still 
able  to  make  us  wise  unto  salvation. 

One  of  the  most  thrilling  accomplish- 
ments that  I  can  think  of,  is  that  as  a 
Church  and  as  a  nation  we  may  aspire 
to  say  out  of  a  full  understanding,  "We 
believe  the  Bible  to  be  the  word  of 
God."  May  we  so  order  our  lives  that 
this  great  accomplishment  may  be 
brought  about,  I  pray  in  the  name  of 
Jesus  Christ.  Amen. 


President  David  O.  McKay: 

He  to  whom  we  have  just  listened  is 
Elder  Sterling  W.  Sill,  Assistant  to  the 
Twelve.  Elder  Hugh  B.  Brown  of  the 
Council  of  the  Twelve,  will  now  address 
us. 


ELDER  HUC 

Of  the  Council  of 

My  brethren  and  sisters,  and  I  hope 
our  friends,  who  are  present  and  who 
are  listening  in,  who  are  not  members 
of  the  Church,  will  permit  me  to  in- 
clude them  in  that  salutation,  "brothers 
and  sisters,"  because  we  believe  in  the 
brotherhood  of  men  under  the  Father- 
hood of  God,  and  that  Fatherhood  which 
is  universal. 

Although  I  come  to  this  assignment 
semiannually,  it  is  always  humbling 
and  sometimes  almost  overwhelming. 
But  it  is  reassuring  to  know  that  one 
has  the  sympathy  and  prayers  of  this 
great  congregation  and,  we  hope,  the 
interest  of  an  even  larger  audience  of 
friendly  listeners  who  are  attending 
conference  by  means  of  radio  and  tele- 
vision. 

We  are  mindful  of  the  unseen  audi- 
ence and  prayerfully  attempt  to  assist 
all  who  seek  a  better  understanding  of 
some  phases  of  what  has  been  called 
the  "Phenomenon  of  Mormonism." 

In  the  past,  unfortunately,  when 
discussing  basic  religious  questions,  it 
was  more  difficult  to  find  common 
ground  of  understanding  than  when 
considering,  for  instance,  science  or 
philosophy.    The  prejudice  of  the  past 


I  B.  BROWN 

e  Twelve  Apostles 

closed  some  minds  to  truth  and  made 
communication  impossible.  Victor  Hugo 
promised  that  "A  day  will  come 
when  the  only  battlefield  will  be  the 
market  open  to  commerce  and  the  mind 
open  to  new  ideas."  Thank  the  Lord 
that  day  is  dawning,  at  least  in  our 
western  world.  As  A.  Powell  Davies 
said,  "The  world  is  too  dangerous  for 
anything  but  truth,  and  too  small  for 
anything  but  brotherhood." 

I  should  like  to  enter  a  plea  for 
friendship,  understanding,  brotherhood, 
and  tolerance,  all  so  badly  needed  in 
our  confused  and  troubled  world.  In 
one  of  our  Articles  of  Faith  we  claim 
for  ourselves,  and  freely  accord  to  all 
men,  the  untrammeled  right  to  worship 
God  according  to  the  dictates  of  con- 
science. 

Intolerance,  one  of  the  bitter  fruits 
of  ignorance  and  bigotry,  has  plagued 
the  world  from  the  beginning  and  has 
been  responsible  for  much  of  its  sorrow 
and  misery.  Maurice  Samuel,  defender 
of  the  Jews,  wrote  in  The  Professor  and 
the  Fossil: 

"For  all  peoples,  are,  alas,  in  the 
habit  of  killing  their  prophets  and 
teachers.    The  English  martyred  their 


ELDER  HUGH  B.  BROWN 


107 


protestant  teachers  (having  failed  to 
martyr  Wycliffe  they  desecrated  his 
corpse),  the  French  martyred  Joan  of 
Arc,  the  Bohemian  princes  betrayed 
John  Huss.  If  these  do  not  rank  among 
the  world's  greatest,  Socrates,  put  to 
death  by  the  Athenians,  does." 

When  we  think  of  historic  intolerance, 
two  names  come  immediately  to  mind. 
In  chronological  order,  but  not  in  the 
order  of  importance,  they  are  Socrates  of 
Athens  and  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  They, 
of  course,  cannot  be  compared,  but  their 
experiences  illustrate  the  subject. 

As  we  read  in  "Great  Books  of  the 
Western  World,"  the  first  named  gave 
to  Plato  and  Aristotle  their  lofty  in- 
spiration, and  the  name  of  Socrates  has 
come  down  through  the  centuries  as  the 
most  virtuous  man  of  his  time.  Yet  he 
was  convicted  of  impiety  and  immoral- 
ity, and  he  was  condemned  to  die — 
mercifully  by  hemlock. 

The  second,  the  only  perfect  person 
who  ever  lived,  took  upon  himself  the 
sins  of  the  world  and  suffered  the  ig- 
nominy of  crucifixion — to  him  more 
agonizing  than  physical  pain.  He  is 
now,  after  nearly  twenty  centuries, 
supreme  above  all  others  in  moral 
grandeur  and  to  millions  is  revered  as 
the  Only  Begotten  Son  of  God,  the 
Savior  of  the  world. 

These  two,  and  many  others  since 
their  time,  were  rejected  by  their  con- 
temporaries because  they  dared  to  ques- 
tion current  belief,  were  impatient  of 
the  status  quo,  and  pioneered  new  areas 
of  thought  and  teaching. 

Phillips  Brooks  reminds  us  that  there 
are  different  brands  of  tolerance.  He 
named  six  as  follows: 

"First,  the  tolerance  of  pure  indiffer- 
ence. We  may  be  tolerant  because  we 
do  not  care,  because  the  issue  at  stake 
does  not  concern  us. 

"Second,  the  tolerance  of  policy.  We 
may  be  tolerant  because  we  think  we 
would  lose  more  than  we  gain  by  fight- 
ing the  man  or  the  measure. 

"Third,  the  tolerance  of  helplessness. 
We  may  be  tolerant  because  we  realize 
that  the  enemy  holds  the  field  and  that 
resistance  will  be  futile. 

"Fourth,  the  tolerance  of  pure  respect 
for  man.  We  may  be  tolerant  because 
we  respect  even  a  man's  right  to  think 
wrong,  because  we  agree  with  Voltaire 
when  he  wrote  to  Helvetius,  'I  wholly 


disapprove  of  what  you  say,  but  will 
defend  to  the  death  your  right  to  say  it.' 

"Fifth,  the  tolerance  of  spiritual  sym- 
pathy. We  may  be  tolerant  because  we 
feel  a  spiritual  comradeship  with  the 
man  whose  purpose  is  fine  even  if  his 
proposition  is  false. 

"Sixth,  the  tolerance  of  an  enlarged 
view  of  truth.  We  may  be  tolerant  be- 
cause we  have  come  to  realize  that  truth 
is  larger  than  any  one  man's  conception 
of  it,  even  if  we  are  the  one  man  in 
question." 

The  first  three  are  mean;  the  last  three 
magnificent. 

The  early  members  of  the  Mormon 
Church  were  forced  to  drink  to  its 
bitter  dregs  from  the  cup  of  prejudice 
and  intolerance.  They  were  mobbed,  dis- 
possessed of  their  homes  and  properties, 
beaten,  imprisoned,  banished,  and  some 
of  them,  including  their  leaders,  were 
murdered;  the  main  charge  against  them 
being  that  they  were  unorthodox,  dared 
to  question  the  teachings  of  other 
churches,  and  claimed  new  revelation. 

John  Stuart  Mill,  in  his  well-known 
essay  on  liberty,  said: 

"I  cannot  refrain  from  adding  to  these 
examples  of  the  little  account  commonly 
made  of  human  liberty,  the  language  of 
downright  persecution  which  breaks  out 
from  the  press  of  this  country  whenever 
it  feels  called  on  to  notice  the  remark- 
able phenomenon  of  Mormonism." 

Mill  further  called  attention  to  the 
fact  that  such  persecution,  far  from 
being  in  any  way  countenanced  by  the 
principle  of  liberty,  was  a  direct  infrac- 
tion of  that  principle  and  was  a  mere 
riveting  of  the  chains  of  one  half  of  the 
community  and  an  emancipation  of  the 
other  from  reciprocity  of  obligation  to- 
ward them. 

History  shows  that  not  only  indi- 
viduals and  smaller  groups,  but  also 
governments  and  powerful  church  or- 
ganizations have  been  guilty  of  cruel 
intolerance  toward  those  who  differ 
with  them.  The  alleged  universal 
church  resorted  to  violent  acts  of  in- 
tolerance and  went  to  almost  un- 
believable extremes  in  their  attempts  to 
enforce  adherence  to  the  orthodox  view. 
By  persecution,  torture,  expulsion,  and 
extermination  of  so-called  heretics  they 
sought  to  stifle  inquiry  and  investiga- 
tion, as  though  men  could  by  fire  and 
sword  be  compelled  to  profess  certain 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


108 

Sunday,  October  11 

doctrines.  The  remarkable  thing  is  that 
they  who  first  broke  the  yoke  of  that 
church  were  themselves  unwilling  to 
permit  differences  of  religious  opinion 
as  soon  as  they  became  established. 
Unbridled  power  often  breeds  intoler- 
ance and  leads  to  tyranny. 

The  Christlike  life  is  always  a  com- 
bination of  earnest,  personal  conviction 
and  generous  regard  for  the  other  man's 
opinion.  Dedication  to  and  defense  of 
truth  never  require  or  justify  breaking 
the  second  commandment  to  love  our 
fellow  men.  A  divine  code  was  given 
by  revelation  for  the  guidance  of  all 
who  exercise  authority. 

"No  power  or  influence  can  or  ought 
to  be  maintained  by  virtue  of  the  priest- 
hood, only  by  persuasion,  by  long- 
suffering,  by  gentleness  and  meekness, 
and  by  love  unfeigned; 

"By  kindness,  and  pure  knowledge, 
which  shall  greatly  enlarge  the  soul 
without  hypocrisy,  and  without  guile — 

"Reproving  betimes  with  sharpness, 
when  moved  upon  by  the  Holy  Ghost; 
and  then  showing  forth  afterwards  an 
increase  of  love  toward  him  whom  thou 
hast  reproved,  lest  he  esteem  thee  to 
be  his  enemy; 

"That  he  may  know  that  thy  faithful- 
ness is  stronger  than  the  cords  of  death." 
(D&C  121:41-44.) 

However,  the  Church  must  not  con- 
done evil  or  wrongdoing  in  the  name 
of  tolerance.  It  must  not  acquiesce  or 
become  an  accessory,  even  by  silence, 
when  error  and  sin  are  arrayed  against 
truth  and  righteousness.  We  must  be 
on  guard  against  alien  ideologies  and 
subtle,  subversive  concepts,  leading  to 
immoral  conduct  and  apostasy.  When- 
ever symptoms  of  apostasy  appear  in 
propaganda  or  conduct,  remedial  meas- 
ures are  applied.  But  when  counsel, 
admonition,  and  instruction  fail,  the 
Church  has  a  duty  to  its  members  to 
take  positive  action  and  either  heal  or 
amputate  malignant  growths. 

The  Savior  said:  ".  .  .  if  thy  right 
eye  offend  thee,  pluck  it  out,  and  cast 
it  from  thee:  for  it  is  profitable  for  thee 
that  one  of  thy  members  should  perish, 
and  not  that  thy  whole  body  should  be 
cast  into  hell."  (Matthew  5:29.)  But 
the  Church  has  no  jurisdiction  outside 
its  own  membership;  nor  does  any 
church  have  jurisdiction  over  any  other. 
Various  churches  stand  in  much  the 


Third  Day 

same  relation  to  each  other  as  private 
persons  among  themselves.  As  John 
Locke  said  long  ago: 

"If  any  one  of  the  churches  has  power 
of  treating  the  other  ill,  which  of  them 
is  it  to  whom  that  power  belongs,  and 
by  what  right?  It  will  be  answered 
undoubtedly  that  it  is  the  orthodox 
church  which  has  the  right  of  authority 
over  the  erroneous  and  heretical.  This 
is,  he  says,  in  great  and  specious  words 
to  say  just  nothing,  for  every  church  is 
orthodox  to  itself.  The  decision  as  to 
which  is  right  is  a  question  which  be- 
longs to  the  supreme  judge  of  all  men." 

Some  traditionally  orthodox  churches 
have  seemed  to  be  concerned  primarily 
with  the  perpetuation  of  conventional 
beliefs,  formulas,  rituals,  and  institu- 
tions. They  require  meticulous  con- 
formity to  traditional  modes  of  belief 
and  ceremony.  Their  chief  objective 
seems  to  have  been  to  maintain  the 
status  quo. 

But  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ,  when- 
ever organized  on  the  earth,  whether 
during  the  brief  sojourn  of  the  Savior 
in  the  Meridian  of  Time  and  the  subse- 
quent activities  of  his  apostles,  or  since 
the  restoration  in  the  fulness  of  times, 
has  always  subjected  traditional  beliefs 
and  ritual  to  searching  criticism  in  the 
light  of  continued  revelation  and  ever- 
increasing  knowledge.  Its  inspired  ap- 
praisals of  human  and  spiritual  values 
go  directly  to  the  core  of  individual  and 
social  living  here  and  now  with  a  con- 
stant reminder  of  the  effect  of  such 
living  on  the  life  hereafter.  Its  latter- 
day  organization  was  preceded  by  a 
sweeping  indictment  of  sectarianism  and 
the  creeds  of  the  time  and  a  proclama- 
tion of  a  new  revelation  from  God. 
Criticism  of  traditional  beliefs  and 
ritual  has  often  been  met  by  persecu- 
tion rather  than  sound  argument. 

When  Jesus  was  on  the  earth,  he 
was  frequently  met  with  objectors  and 
hecklers  who,  looking  backward,  ap- 
pealed to  the  law  of  Moses.  His  char- 
acteristic forward-looking  reply  was, 
"It  has  been  said  by  them  of  old  .  .  .  but 
I  say  unto  you.  .  .  ."  In  other  words,  he 
spoke  with  divine  authority.  He  was 
concerned  as  we  are  with  the  individual, 
with  the  social  order,  and  with  estab- 
lishing the  kingdom  of  God  on  earth 
preparatory  to  the  coming  of  the 
kingdom  of  heaven.    He  invited  his 


ELDER  HUGH  B.  BROWN 


109 


listeners  to  put  his  teachings  to  the  test 
of  actual  experience,  saying  if  any  man 
would  do  his  will  he  would  know  of  the 
doctrine.  That  is  a  continuing  promise 
to  all  men  everywhere. 

In  the  spirit  of  friendship  and  brother- 
hood we  ask  our  listeners  to  consider 
prayerfully  our  message,  put  our  doc- 
trines to  the  test  of  which  Jesus  spoke, 
and  we  promise  you  that  you  shall  know 
whether  our  doctrine  is  of  God  or  merely 
of  men. 

Briefly  the  message  of  Mormonism  is 
that  the  God  of  Abraham,  Isaac,  and 
Jacob  is  the  true  God,  the  Messiah  of 
the  New  Testament;  that  the  King 
James  version  of  the  Holy  Bible  is  in 
fact  the  word  of  God  and  that  Jesus  of 
Nazareth  is  in  fact  the  Christ;  that  the 
prophecies  recorded  in  the  Bible  con- 
cerning the  last  days  are  now  in  the 
course  of  fulfilment;  that  a  new  dis- 
pensation of  the  gospel  has  been  given 
to  men  and  that  the  kingdom  of  God  is 
now  divinely  organized  on  earth  pre- 
paratory to  the  coming  of  the  kingdom 
of  heaven.  This  message,  if  it  be  true, 
and  to  its  truth  we  humbly  testify,  is 
the  most  important  message  that  has 
come  to  this  world  since  the  resurrection 
and  ascension  of  the  Savior  of  the 
world.  This  may  seem  to  some  to  be 
an  extravagant  statement  but  it  refers 
to  a  visit  of  the  same  glorified  being 
who  ascended  into  heaven  with  his 
resurrected  body  in  the  presence  of  his 
followers  and  of  angels  who  promised 
he  would  come  again.  He  appeared  to 
men  in  our  time  preparatory  to  his  prom- 
ised second  coming  when  he  is  to  rule 
and  reign  as  King  of  kings  and  Lord  of 
lords. 

We  declare  that  God  has  intervened 
in  the  affairs  of  men  in  anticipation  of 
the  final  struggle  against  the  hosts  of 
Hades,  the  Anti-Christs,  who  are  organ- 
ized and  marshaled  for  war  against 
religion  and  God  and  all  the  principles 
of  freedom,  justice,  love,  and  tolerance 
for  which  the  Savior  died. 

Coupled  with  this  declaration  of  faith 
in  a  personal  God  and  in  his  nearness 
to  this  world  is  a  re-affirmation  of  the 
Biblical  doctrine  that  man  was  created 
in  the  image  of  God  and  therefore  has 
a  potential  godlike  status,  with  capacity 
to  live  and  progress  forever.  We  believe 
in  the  essential  dignity  of  man,  that  he 
was  intended  by  his  Creator  to  be  free 


and  not  a  slave  to  any  man  or  nation. 
We  shall  never  surrender  to  the  belief 
that  man  is  a  soulless  device  made 
to  serve  a  machine  or  a  state.  We  be- 
lieve that  his  freedom  is,  next  to  life 
itself,  his  most  precious  gift.  In  fact, 
man  is  willing  to  sacrifice  his  life  to 
secure  and  preserve  freedom. 

We  believe  in  the  immortality  of  the 
soul;  that  death  is  integral  to  life,  a 
phase  of  life,  its  continuance,  not  its 
end;  and  that  men  who  keep  the  com- 
mandments of  God  need  not  fear  death, 
for  we  shall,  as  Tennyson  said,  meet  our 
Pilot  face  to  face  when  that  which  drew 
from  out  the  boundless  deep  turns  again 
home  and  we  have  "Crossed  the  Bar." 

Grant  us  peace,  oh  Lord,  the  peace 
which  comes  from  understanding,  from 
tolerance  and  brotherhood,  from  love 
of  our  fellow  men  and  love  of  thee,  the 
Lord.  May  thy  kingdom  come  and  thy 
will  be  done  on  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven, 
in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ.  Amen. 

President  David  O.  McKay: 

The  great  declaration  and  impressive 
testimony  to  which  you  have  just  lis- 
tened was  given  by  Elder  Hugh  B. 
Brown,  a  member  of  the  Council  of  the 
Twelve. 

The  closing  song  will  be  given  by 
the  Tabernacle  Choir,  "Crossing  the 
Bar,"  part  of  which  was  quoted,  con- 
ducted by  Richard  P.  Condie.  The 
closing  prayer  will  be  offered  by  Elder 
Berkeley  L.  Bunker,  formerly  president 
of  the  Southern  States  Mission,  follow- 
ing which  this  Conference  will  stand 
adjourned  until  two  o'clock  this  after- 
noon. 

Brethren  and  sisters,  in  bringing  to  a 
conclusion  this  sixth  session  of  the  One 
Hundred  Twenty-Ninth  Semi-Annual 
Conference,  we  express  our  sincere  ap- 
preciation to  the  owners  and  managers 
of  the  many  television  and  radio  stations 
who  have  offered  their  facilities  to  us 
this  morning.  We  are  grateful  for  this 
wonderful  public  service  so  generously 
extended.  Eighteen  major  cities  in  the 
West  have  carried  the  proceedings  of 
this  Conference  through  radio  and  tele- 
vision. According  to  a  survey  that  has 
been  made,  it  is  estimated  that  there 
have  been  about  one  million  people 
listening  in  this  morning. 

We  are  grateful  also  for  the  attend- 


110 

Sunday,  October  11 

ance  of  all  who  are  present  in  the  Tab- 
ernacle, in  the  Assembly  Hall  and 
Barratt  Hall,  and  in  other  gatherings 
where  the  Conference  is  seen  and  heard. 

Brother  Kimball  has  handed  me  the 
following — we  have  H.  Aldous  Dixon, 
our  Congressman;  David  S.  King,  com- 
panion in  Congress;  our  Governor, 
George  Dewey  Clyde;  our  Mayor,  Adiel 
F.  Stewart;  educators,  Dr.  Ernest  L. 
Wilkinson  of  the  Brigham  Young  Uni- 
versity; Dr.  Homer  Durham,  Vice-Presi- 
dent of  the  University  of  Utah, 
representing  President  Olpin  who  is 
absent  in  Japan  now;  Dr.  Daryl  Chase, 
president  of  the  Utah  State  University; 
Dr.  John  L.  Clarke,  president  of  Ricks 
College;  Dr.  M.  Lynn  Bennion,  Superin- 
tendent of  the  public  schools  here  in 
Salt  Lake  City;  and  undoubtedly  many 
others,  to  all  of  whom  we  extend  a  most 
hearty  welcome  and  I  am  sure  you  have 
been  thrilled  by  the  exercises  and  testi- 
monies of  this  day. 

We  are  pleased,  also,  to  welcome  our 
stake  presidencies  here  in  such  attend- 
ance, and  bishoprics  of  the  wards  from 
all  over  the  world,  temple  presidents, 
general  auxiliary  officers.  We  extend  a 
cordial  welcome  to  all.  It  is  glorious 
to  meet  with  you  and  have  you  partake 
of  the  spirit  of  this  great  Conference, 
and  to  let  us  partake  of  your  spirit  by 
your  presence. 

The  beautiful  flowers  which  you  see 
arranged  on  the  rostrum  and  pulpit  have 
come  from  Hawaii.  It  is  a  good  illus- 
tration of  the  convenience  of  transporta- 
tion in  this  day.  They  are  sent  with 
the  love  and  greetings  of  the  members 
of  the  Church  in  the  Oahu  Stake.  We 
express  appreciation  and  thanks  to  them. 
Our  thoughts  and  best  wishes  through- 
out this  Conference  have  been  enhanced 
by  the  fragrance  and  beauty  of  these 
flowers. 

We  desire  to  mention  the  General 
Priesthood  Meeting  which  was  held  last 
evening,  the  fifth  session  of  the  General 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


Third  Day 

Conference,  held  here  in  the  Salt  Lake 
Tabernacle,  with  overflow  meetings  in 
the  Assembly  Hall  and  Barratt  Hall. 
The  proceedings  were  relayed  by  closed 
circuit  to  members  of  the  Priesthood 
assembled  in  204  Church  buildings  from 
Coast  to  Coast  and  in  Canada,  51  more 
buildings  than  we  had  during  the  April 
Conference.  It  was  reported  at  the 
conclusion  of  our  meeting  that  48,364 
members  of  the  Priesthood  were  in  at- 
tendance. 

We  have  here  several  telegrams  from 
those  who  were  listening  stating  that 
the  transmission  was  perfect,  and  that 
they  enjoyed  very  much  the  kindness  of 
the  General  Authorities  in  making  that 
arrangement. 

This  morning  at  7:30,  Elder  Richard 
L.  Evans  of  the  Council  of  the  Twelve 
was  the  speaker  over  CBS  Church-of- 
the-Air  Broadcast  on  KSL  Radio.  I 
hope  all  of  you  heard  his  sermon  on 
"Ultimate  Objectives." 

The  singing  for  this  morning's  ses- 
sion has  been  furnished,  as  you  all 
know,  by  the  Tabernacle  Choir,  with 
Richard  P.  Condie  directing.  We  appre- 
ciate it  and  they  know  it,  and  we  express 
heart-felt  appreciation  to  these  men  and 
women  who  give  so  generously  of  their 
time  and  talents  and  who  have  brought 
such  honor  to  themselves  and  to  the 
Church  in  their  excellent  singing.  They 
will  conclude  this  service  now  with  the 
song,  "Crossing  the  Bar." 

Elder  Berkeley  L.  Bunker  will  offer 
the  closing  prayer,  and  we  will  adjourn 
until  two  o'clock  this  afternoon. 


The  concluding  number  by  the  Taber- 
nacle Choir  was  "Crossing  the  Bar." 

Elder  Berkeley  L.  Bunker,  formerly 
president  of  the  Southern  States  Mission, 
offered  the  closing  prayer. 

Conference  adjourned  until  2  o'clock 
p.m. 


THIRD  DAY 
AFTERNOON  MEETING 


The  seventh  and  concluding  session 
of  the  Conference  was  held  in  the  great 
Tabernacle  Sunday  afternoon,  October 
11,  at  2  o'clock. 

President  David  O.  McKay  presided, 
and  conducted  the  services,  as  he  had 
done  at  all  the  previous  general  sessions 
of  the  Conference. 

The  Tabernacle  Choir  furnished  the 
singing  for  this  session  of  the  Confer- 
ence, under  the  direction  of  Richard  P. 
Condie,  assisted  by  Jay  E.  Welch,  with 
Alexander  Schreiner  at  the  organ  con- 
sole. 

President  David  O.  McKay: 

Members  of  the  Church  are  convened 
in  the  Tabernacle  on  Temple  Square 
in  Salt  Lake  City  in  the  concluding 
and  seventh  session  of  the  One  Hundred 
Twenty-Ninth  Semi-Annual  Conference 
of  the  Church.  For  those  who  are  un- 
able to  enter  the  building,  and  there 
seems  to  be  hundreds,  we  announce 
that  these  services  are  being  broadcast 
in  the  Assembly  Hall  and  in  the  Barratt 
Hall  over  television. 

We  welcome  the  service  men  who 
came  yesterday  and  also  the  fifty-six 
Marines  who  came  in  this  morning 
from  El  Toro,  Camp  Pendleton,  Cali- 
fornia. 

These  services  are  also  being  broadcast 
as  a  public  service  by  television  and 
radio  stations  throughout  the  West.  The 
names  of  these  stations  were  announced 
to  the  television  and  radio  audiences  at 
the  beginning  of  the  meeting.  To  the 
owners  and  managers  of  these  various 
stations  we  again  express  our  sincere 
appreciation  for  this  wonderful  public 
service  so  generously  extended. 


The  music  for  this  session  will  be 
rendered  by  the  Tabernacle  Choir,  with 
Richard  P.  Condie  conducting,  and 
Alexander  Schreiner  at  the  organ.  We 
shall  begin  this  service  by  the  Taber- 
nacle Choir  singing,  "Be  Still  and  Know 
That  I  Am  God,"  with  Jay  E.  Welch, 
Assistant  Conductor,  directing.  The 
opening  prayer  will  be  offered  by  Elder 
Junius  M.  Jackson,  formerly  president 
of  the  New  England  Mission. 


The  Tabernacle  Choir  sang  the  an- 
them, "Be  Still  and  Know  That  I  Am 
God,"  with  Jay  E.  Welch,  Assistant 
Conductor  of  the  Choir,  directing. 

Elder  Junius  M.  Jackson,  formerly 
president  of  the  New  England  Mission, 
offered  the  invocation. 

President  David  O.  McKay: 

Elder  Junius  M.  Jackson,  formerly 
president  of  the  New  England  Mission, 
offered  the  invocation.  The  Tabernacle 
Choir  will  now  sing,  "I  Know  that  My 
Redeemer  Lives,"  conducted  by  Richard 
P.  Condie.  After  the  singing,  Elder 
Ezra  Taft  Benson  will  address  us. 


Singing  by  the  Choir, 
My  Redeemer  Lives." 


'I  Know  That 


President  David  O.  McKay: 

Elder  Ezra  Taft  Benson  of  the  Coun- 
cil of  the  Twelve  will  be  our  first  speaker 
this  afternoon.  He  will  be  followed 
by  Elder  Antoine  R.  Ivins  of  the  First 
Council  of  Seventy. 


ELDER  EZRA  TAFT  BENSON 

Of  the  Council  of  the  Twelve  Apostles 


My  beloved  brethren  and  sisters, 
humbly  and  gratefully  I  approach  this 
sobering  responsibility.  First,  may  I 
say  that  I  welcome  and  sustain  with  all 
my  heart,  my  good  friend  and  brother 
as  a  member  of  the  Council  of  the 


Twelve.  President  Howard  W.  Hunter 
can  look  forward  to  the  sweetest  asso- 
ciation known  among  men  in  this 
world.   God  bless  him. 

With  Sister  Benson  and  two  of  our 
daughters,  I  returned  to  the  shores  of 


112 

Sunday,  October  11 

this  blessed  land  last  Friday.  Two 
weeks  ago  today  we  spent  a  glorious  Sab- 
bath with  the  Saints  and  friends  in  West 
Berlin.  A  week  ago  today  we  spent  an 
inspiring  Sabbath  with  Saints  and 
friends  in  Helsinki,  Finland. 

It  is  truly  good  to  be  home,  and  it  is 
an  inspiration  and  an  uplift  to  attend 
this  great  conference.  How  I  wish  and 
pray  that  everyone  of  the  millions  of 
good  people,  citizens  of  Russia  and 
other  communistic-dominated  nations, 
could  sit  through  one  of  the  general 
conferences  of  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ 
of  Latter-day  Saints.  Sometime  I  would 
like  to  say  more  on  this  subject  of 
communism.  It  would  be  inappropriate 
for  me  to  do  so  now.  I  feel  a  bit  like 
Alma  of  old,  when  he  said,  "O  that  I 
were  an  angel,  and  could  have  the  wish 
of  mine  heart."  (Alma  29:1.) 

My  brethren  and  sisters,  I  commend 
to  you  the  counsel  and  the  warnings 
that  have  been  issued  in  the  instructions 
of  President  David  O.  McKay  and  Presi- 
dent J.  Reuben  Clark,  Jr.,  on  this  sub- 
ject during  this  conference.  I  would  add 
only  one  word,  a  word  which  I  hope 
we  will  never  forget.  Any  system  which 
denies  the  existence  and  power  of  God, 
which  robs  men  of  their  God-given  free 
agency,  and  which  destroys  the  basic 
institution  of  the  home,  is  of  the  evil 
one.  No  true  Latter-day  Saint  can  ever 
become  a  part  of  any  such  system. 

I  know  there  are  difficult  days  ahead, 
politically,  economically,  socially,  and 
spiritually.  But  God  rules  this  world. 
He  is  at  the  helm.  May  he  help  us  to 
be  prepared  for  any  eventuality. 

We  live  in  a  choice  land.  But  we 
live  in  a  time  of  anxiety — a  time  when 
the  basic  concepts  and  values  of  a  free 
society,  which  we  cherish,  are  being 
seriously  challenged.  This  challenge  is 
not  only  from  godless,  imperial  com- 
munism abroad,  but  also  from  danger- 
ous ideologies  and  practices  here  at 
home. 

It  is  true  that  outwardly  everything 
seems  prosperous.  More  people  are 
working  at  higher  wages  and  enjoying  a 
better  standard  of  living  than  ever  be- 
fore in  the  history  of  our  country.  More 
of  our  people  are  enjoying  travel,  cul- 
tural and  educational  opportunities 
than  any  time  in  our  history.  New 
churches  are  being  erected  at  a  rapid 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


Third  Day 

rate,  and  an  increasing  number  of  peo- 
ple are  church-affiliated.  Our  nation 
is  at  peace. 

All  these  things  should  give  a  feeling 
of  stability,  inner  assurance,  and  a  sense 
of  satisfaction,  but  they  do  not  seem  to 
do  so.  Discontent  among  our  people, 
nationwide,  seems  to  be  high.  We 
view  with  alarm  the  ever-rising  level 
of  public  and  private  debt  and  the 
threat  of  inflation.  We  note  with  fear 
the  increase  in  crime,  juvenile  delin- 
quency, alcoholism,  drug  addiction,  and 
sex  offenses. 

We  pay  lip  service  to  the  principles 
embodied  in  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence and  the  Constitution  without 
realizing  what  they  are  and  the  danger 
of  ignoring  them.  We  demand  more 
and  more  of  government,  so  "govern- 
ment grows  larger  all  the  while,  marking 
the  stampede  away  from  personal  re- 
sponsibility which  occurs  at  all  levels 
of  life."  We  passively  contribute  to  the 
spirit  and  demoralizing  philosophy  of 
"something  for  nothing." 

Because  sin  is  rampant  and  increasing, 
I  make  bold  enough  to  call  this  nation 
to  repentance.  Only  through  righteous- 
ness is  there  safety  for  our  beloved 
country.   There  is  no  other  way. 

Today  I  speak  out  against  one  of  the 
insidious  and  rapidly  increasing  threats 
against  our  young  people. 

As  a  Church  we  have  always  placed 
great  emphasis  on  youth.  Our  young 
men,  if  worthy,  receive  the  priesthood 
at  twelve  years  of  age.  We  enlist  a 
higher  percentage  of  our  young  boys  in 
scouting  than  any  other  group.  We 
have  a  comprehensive  program,  com- 
bining Sunday  School,  Primary,  MIA, 
priesthood  activities,  and  weekday  sem- 
inary classes,  to  guide  the  activities  of 
our  youth,  instil  within  them  a  testi- 
mony of  the  gospel,  and  help  them  to 
grow  up  to  be  good  citizens  and  faithful 
members  of  the  Church.  Yes,  we  recog- 
nize full  well  that  our  boys  and  girls, 
our  young  men  and  women,  are  our 
greatest  asset.   They  are  our  hope. 

The  youth  of  today  are  the  trustees 
of  the  future.  Sooner  than  we  think 
the  leadership  of  the  Church  and  the 
future  of  our  country  will  rest  in  their 
hands.  It  is  our  grave  obligation  to 
help  prepare  American  youth  to  be 
worthy  trustees,  to  help  them  fit  them- 


ELDER  EZRA  TAFT  BENSON 


113 


selves  for  their  coming  responsibilities. 
This  is  the  obligation  of  every  adult 
citizen. 

We  have  confidence  in  our  youth, 
yes.  But  we  know  they  face  troubled 
times.  They  are  beset  by  many  tempta- 
tions— temptations,  which,  if  not  new, 
are  certainly  more  blatant,  more  preva- 
lent, than  ever  before. 

We  know  how  important  it  is  for  our 
youth  to  possess  clean  minds  in  healthy 
clean  bodies.  ".  .  .  be  ye  clean,  that  bear 
the  vessels  of  the  Lord."  (Isaiah  52:11.) 
Moral  purity  is  an  eternal  principle.  The 
Spirit  of  God  "cannot  dwell  in  an  un- 
clean tabernacle."  Purity  is  life-giving; 
impurity  is  deadly.  God's  holy  laws 
cannot  be  broken  with  impunity.  Great 
nations  have  fallen  when  they  became 
morally  corrupt,  because  the  sins  of  im- 
morality left  their  people  scarred  and 
misshapen  creatures  who  were  unable  to 
face  the  challenge  of  their  times. 

I  speak  about  one  aspect  of  this  ques- 
tion of  morality  which  affects  all  our 
youth.  There  are  forces  at  work  in  this 
country  today  which  are  victimizing 
many  thousands  of  our  youth,  under- 
mining their  moral  fiber,  poisoning  their 
minds.  There  is  being  spread  about  in 
this  land  a  veritable  flood  of  obscene 
photographs,  movie  films  "for  private 
showings,"  filthy  books,  and  so-called 
comics  that  drip  with  depravity  and 
obscenity. 

Every  day  some  200,000  circulars  are 
flooding  our  cities  and  towns,  seeking  to 
sell  obscenity  and  filth  to  the  American 
people.  It  is  a  $500,000,000  a  year  busi- 
ness and  growing  fast.  The  sales  volume 
of  mail-order  obscenity  has  doubled  in 
the  last  five  years. 

Who  are  the  targets  of  this  drive? 
Three-fourths  of  these  circulars  are  sent 
to  our  youth.  Our  school  children  are 
the  targets,  our  boys  and  girls,  particu- 
larly between  the  ages  of  eleven  and 
sixteen. 

The  United  States  Post  Office  depart- 
ment estimates  that  between  700,000  and 
a  million  children  in  American  homes 
will  receive  unsolicited  obscene  and 
pornographic  literature  through  the 
mails  this  year. 

Our  boys  and  girls  need  not  have 
shown  any  interest  in  this  vile  stuff.  It 
is  thrust  into  their  hands  by  racketeers 
who  go  to  great  lengths  to  get  the 
names  of  our  children.  They  buy  mail- 


ing lists  from  standard  sources.  They 
get  names  from  high  school  yearbooks 
and  classbooks.  They  set  up  fake  busi- 
ness "fronts."  A  boy  sends  away  for  a 
model  airplane,  a  baseball  bat,  a  toy 
automobile,  a  stamp  collection,  often 
advertised  at  bargain  prices — and  the 
muck  merchant  has  his  name  and  ad- 
dress on  his  list. 

Then  the  solicitations  begin. 

The  smut  dealers  last  year  mailed  out 
an  estimated  fifty  million  sales  circu- 
lars under  the  protection  of  first-class 
mail.  Some  of  these  circulars  are  in 
the  form  of  pseudo-personal  letters  in 
girl's  handwriting,  signed  with  a  girl's 
name. 

The  smut  dealers  go  farther.  They 
even  seek  to  involve  our  youth  as  sales- 
men of  their  trash.  One  scheme  is  to 
sell  our  youngsters  playing  cards  deco- 
rated with  lewd  pictures  for  perhaps 
$3.00  a  deck — to  be  resold  at  25c  or  50c 
a  card. 

Many  children  fall  into  the  trap  of 
ordering  obscene  material.  Traffic  with 
children  is  a  major  and  growing  part  of 
the  filth  merchants'  business. 

Postal  inspectors  in  New  York  City 
recently  raided  one  dealer  in  pornog- 
raphy. They  confiscated  seventeen 
tons  of  highly  obscene  printed  and 
filmed  materials.  They  found  mailing 
lists  containing  the  names  of  thousands 
of  high  school  graduates  taken  from 
high  school  yearbooks. 

Some  parents  are  almost  frantic  be- 
cause of  their  inability  to  keep  this  un- 
wanted material  out  of  their  homes.  A 
mother  in  a  midwestern  state  writes  to 
the  Post  Office  department  as  follows: 

"Enclosed  you  will  find  the  filth  that 
has  been  sent  to  my  son  for  the  past 
year.  He  is  fourteen.  Think  what  this 
could  do  to  him,  and  how  many  other 
innocent  boys  and  girls  he  could  corrupt 
by  passing  this  literature  on  to  them. 
Can't  you  do  something  to  stop  it?" 

Another  parent  in  the  East  writes: 

"Ads  like  this  come  to  my  minor  son 
at  the  rate  of  one  or  two  a  week." 

A  lawyer  tells  how  his  son  answered 
an  innocuous  appearing  ad  in  a  national 
magazine  and  received  a  batch  of  ob- 
scene pictures  and  an  order  blank  for 
more.  His  name  is  on  the  mailing  list, 
and  nearly  every  week  an  ad  for  porno- 
graphic material  comes  in  the  mail.  The 
lawyer  says,  "My  wife  and  I  are  beside 


114 

Sunday,  October  11 

ourselves  as  to  how  to  stop  this  flood 
of  mail." 

Now,  what  are  the  effects  of  this 
material  on  our  youth? 

Juvenile  delinquency  has  become  a 
blot  on  our  country.  Gangs  roam  the 
streets  of  some  of  our  big  cities.  Arrests 
of  juveniles  for  major  crimes  rose  about 
ten  percent  last  year.  Authorities  have 
observed  on  repeated  occasions  that  the 
obscenity  racket  is  a  prime  contributor 
to  the  increase  in  juvenile  delinquency. 

FBI  figures  show  that  more  boys  of 
eighteen  and  nineteen  are  now  com- 
mitting the  heinous  crime  of  rape,  than 
males  in  any  other  age  group.  The  per- 
centage of  convictions  of  boys  under 
twenty  has  grown  substantially  in  re- 
cent years. 

Now,  of  course,  some  people  will  argue 
that  many  children  exposed  to  these 
pictures  and  books  never  become  de- 
linquent. This  argument  has  no  merit 
at  all.  Your  child  may  be  exposed  to 
tuberculosis  or  polio  and  never  contract 
either  disease.  Is  this  a  reason  for  de- 
liberately exposing  children  to  infection? 
Of  course  not. 

It  is  true  that  people  go  wrong  for 
many  reasons.  Children  become  de- 
linquent in  part  because  of  such  factors 
as  broken  homes,  drinking  parents,  in- 
different parents,  and  bad  companions. 
But  the  wish  is  father  of  the  deed. 
Thought  precedes  action.  We  cannot 
help  being  influenced  by  what  we  read 
and  what  we  see.  A  dirty  book,  a  filthy 
picture,  may  be  the  trigger  that  sets  off 
a  terrible  crime. 

Reports  from  police  chiefs  and  sheriffs 
indicate  the  tie-up.  Here  are  typical 
statements  from  city  officials  in  Massa- 
chusetts, Colorado,  and  Pennsylvania: 

"Teen-ager  criminally  assaults  16- 
year-old  girl.  Search  of  his  room  re- 
vealed 50  pornographic  pictures  beneath 
his  mattress." 

"Student  molesting  two  teen-age  girls 
found  to  have  pornographic  literature 
in  glove  compartment  of  his  car." 

Let  me  quote  from  a  report  of  a  Senate 
subcommittee  that  has  studied  this  prob- 
lem.  The  report  says  in  part: 

"There  is  a  peculiar  resemblance  to 
narcotics  addiction  in  exposure  of  juve- 
niles to  pornography.  There  is  the  same 
pattern  of  progression.  Once  initiated 
into  a  knowledge  of  the  unnatural,  the 
impressionable  young  mind  with  the 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


Third  Day 

insatiable  curiosity  characteristic  of 
those  reaching  for  maturity  inevitably 
hunts  for  something  stronger,  something 
with  more  'jolt,'  something  imparting  a 
greater  thrill. 

"The  dealer  in  pornography  is  acutely 
aware  of  this  progressive  facet;  his  array 
of  material  to  feed  this  growing  hunger 
is  carefully  geared  to  the  successive 
stages.  Like  the  peddler  of  narcotics, 
his  only  interest  is  to  insure  that  his 
customers  are  'hooked.'  He  knows  that 
once  they  are  'hooked'  they  will  con- 
tinue to  pay  and  pay." 

These  are  some  of  the  direct  results 
of  the  smut  campaign.  There  are  in- 
direct results,  too.  Our  children,  our 
wives,  our  friends,  may  be  the  horrified 
victims  of  criminals  who  are  triggered 
by  obscene  materials. 

Well,  what  is  the  response  of  the 
smut  publishers  and  dealers  to  these 
facts? 

Their  attitude  is  summed  up  in  some 
such  sentiment  as  this:  My  job  is  to 
make  a  dollar,  not  to  look  out  for  un- 
stable children  or  adults.  No  wonder 
J.  Edgar  Hoover  has  said: 

"The  activities  of  the  muck  merchants 
are  national  in  scope.  Your  child  can 
easily  become  one  of  their  victims." 

What  are  we  going  to  do  about  it? 
Shall  we  fold  our  arms,  shake  our  heads 
dismally,  and  do  nothing? 

Shall  we  permit  organized  crime  to 
continue  and  extend  the  obscenity  racket 
— already  a  half  billion  dollar  a  year 
business — and  make  it  really  big  and 
immeasurably  more  vicious? 

Shall  we  allow  more  and  more  of  our 
children  to  be  victimized,  allow  them 
to  be  "hooked"  by  this  menace  to  clean 
and  right  living,  this  threat  to  moral 
purity? 

Shall  we  sit  by  and  watch  sex  crimes 
grow  and  grow  in  number  and  violence? 

Shall  we  permit  these  cheap  peddlers 
of  filth  to  undermine  the  moral  fiber 
of  our  youth,  the  moral  strength  of  our 
nation? 

I  believe  I  know  what  our  pioneer 
forefathers  would  have  answered  to  these 
questions. 

And  I  think  I  know  what  you  and 
other  responsible  citizens  will  answer. 
They  would  have  said,  as  we  say  today: 
"Forbid  it,  Almighty  God.  We  shall 
not  sit  by  any  longer.  We  shall  act  in 


ELDER  EZRA  TAFT  BENSON 


115 


defense  of  decency  and  order  and  in  the 
name  of  our  country." 

Our  government  is  striking  with  all 
the  weapons  it  possesses  against  the 
obscenity  menace.  Until  last  year,  pur- 
veyors of  filth  had  to  be  prosecuted  at 
the  point  from  which  they  mailed  their 
smut.  This  was  a  severe  handicap  to 
prosecution.  Courts,  notably  in  Los 
Angeles  and  New  York,  where  the  great 
bulk  of  the  mail-order  business  in  ob- 
scenity originates,  handed  down  soft 
rulings  on  obscenity.  Few  offenders 
were  convicted,  and  these  usually  paid 
a  small  fine  and  began  operating  again. 

Legislation  passed  by  Congress  last 
year  has  now  made  it  possible  to  prose- 
cute where  the  mail  is  received. 

The  first  case  prosecuted  under  the 
new  law  was  in  Boise,  Idaho.  A  man 
and  his  wife,  who  were  mailing  ex- 
tremely obscene  material  from  the  west 
coast,  were  given  ten  years  in  jail,  plus 
a  heavy  fine. 

A  Virginia  man  and  his  wife  dealing 
in  obscenity  were  sentenced  to  a  year 
in  the  Federal  Penitentiary  and  fined 
$2,000.  In  Louisiana,  two  more  dealers 
in  filth  were  given  a  year  and  eighteen 
months  in  jail  respectively. 

This  is  a  good  start.  But  it  is  only 
a  start. 

If  government  is  to  make  full  use  of 
the  new  legislation,  it  needs  and  must 
have  the  co-operation  of  all  our  citizens 
and  especially  of  all  our  parents. 

The  privacy  of  the  mail  is  a  basic 
American  right.  It  will  not  be  violated. 
The  Post  Office  cannot  open  first-class 
mail  even  if  it  is  certain  the  envelope 
contains  obscene  material.  The  Post 
Office  can  act  only  if  parents  supply 
the  evidence  after  the  mail  has  been 
delivered.  Here  is  what  we  as  parents 
can  do,  what  we  must  do: 

1.  If  mail  coming  to  your  home  is 
obscene,  or  solicits  the  sale  of  obscene 
materials:  save  all  the  material,  includ- 
ing the  covering  envelope;  put  it 
promptly  in  the  hands  of  the  local  post- 
master either  personally  or  by  mail. 

2.  Do  not  wait  for  this  danger  to 
strike  your  home.  Join  with  other  par- 
ents, teachers,  local  law  enforcement 
officers,  and  civic  groups  in  drawing 
public  attention  to  the  menace  of  this 
traffic  in  filth. 

3.  Work  closely  with  teachers  in  your 
community  to  detect  obscene  materials 


in  the  possession  of  children  and  to  de- 
termine the  origin  of  such  material. 

4.  Join  with  other  parents  and  teach- 
ers in  making  a  special  effort  to  impress 
upon  the  community  the  fact  that  even 
children  who  are  never  exposed  to  the 
obscene  material  may  be  victimized  by 
sex  criminals. 

5.  Co-operate  with  the  schools  in 
taking  positive,  long-range  steps  to  help 
children  develop  wholesome  interests  in 
good  literature  and  art — making  it  read- 
ily available  to  them  at  home,  in  the 
classroom,  through  literary  and  library 
clubs,  and  through  student  groups. 

6.  Help  civic  groups  bring  about  the 
establishment  of  a  decent  literature  com- 
mittee, broadly  representative  of  the 
interested  civic  organizations  in  the  com- 
munity. 

7.  Get  local  judges,  law  enforcement 
officers,  and  representatives  of  the  police 
force  to  talk  before  civic  groups  telling 
what  they,  as  guardians  of  the  com- 
munity's laws,  know  of  the  relationship 
between  the  traffic  in  obscene  literature 
and  juvenile  delinquency  and  sex 
crimes. 

We  must  defend  our  youth,  in  the 
interests  of  this  nation  which  God  has 
blessed  above  all  others.  We  must  rise 
to  this  task,  stand  up,  and  be  counted 
on  the  side  of  decency.  We  must  show 
by  our  lives  and  actions  that  we  possess 
the  virtues  that  made  America  great. 

There  will  be  those  who  will  cry 
"censorship"  and  "suppressing  of  free- 
dom of  information."  To  these  people 
there  does  not  seem  to  be  any  difference 
between  liberty  and  license — but  there 
is  a  real  difference.  It  is  not  a  denial 
of  liberty  to  forbid  the  sale  of  narcotics 
or  alcohol  to  children,  and  neither  is  it 
a  denial  of  liberty  to  ban  the  distribu- 
tion of  filthy,  obscene,  character  de- 
stroying materials. 

There  has  developed  in  this  country, 
I  am  sorry  to  say,  a  species  of  so-called 
"broadmindedness"  which  tolerates  any- 
thing and  everything.  It  is  high  time 
right-thinking  citizens  showed  they  are 
fed  up  with  such  false  broadmindedness. 
I,  for  one,  fail  to  see  where  this  so-called 
"tolerance"  of  evil  has  made  society 
any  better  or  individuals  any  happier. 
We  cannot  steer  a  safe  course  without 
a  compass.  We  cannot  build  an  endur- 
ing society  except  on  principles  of 
righteousness. 


116  GENERAL  C 

Sunday,  October  11 

As  Dr.  Daniel  A.  Poling  recently  wrote 
in  the  Christian  Herald,  "It's  time  for  a 
new  crusade,"  a  crusade  for  decency. 

The  youth  of  the  Church  and  of 
America  deserve  that  we  parents  live 
up  to  our  responsibilities  in  this  regard. 

Many  centuries  ago,  a  celebrated 
Roman  matron,  Cornelia,  was  asked  by 
an  acquaintance  to  display  her  jewels. 
Cornelia  called  to  her  children  to  step 
forward.  "These  are  my  jewels,"  she 
said. 

The  youth  of  the  Church  and  of 
America  are  our  jewels.  Let  us  prize 
them  as  they  deserve.   A  clean  America 


Third  Day 

will  be  a  strong  America,  a  secure 
America,  a  prosperous  America,  a  peace- 
ful America,  a  free  America,  an  America 
that  will  continue  to  merit  God's  bless- 
ings in  the  future  as  it  has  in  the  past. 

God  grant  it  may  be  so,  I  humbly 
pray  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ.  Amen. 

President  David  O.  McKay: 

We  have  just  heard  Elder  Ezra  Taft 
Benson  of  the  Council  of  the  Twelve. 
Elder  Antoine  R.  Ivins  of  the  First  Coun- 
cil of  Seventy  will  now  speak  to  us. 
He  will  be  followed  by  Elder  Gordon 
B.  Hinckley. 


ELDER  ANTOINE  R.  IVINS 

Of  the  First  Council  of  the  Seventy 


My  brethren  and  sisters,  you  will 
pardon  me  if  I  say  it  has  been  a  nervous 
wait.  Twenty-eight  years  ago,  at  the 
October  conference,  I  was  sustained  as 
one  of  your  Presidents  of  the  seventies 
quorum.  That  means  that  this  is  the 
fifty-sixth  time  I  have  stood  here  to  bear 
my  testimony  to  you.  I  have  to  confess 
that  while  I  like  to  bear  my  testimony, 
the  overwhelming  sense  of  responsibility 
is  almost  more  than  I  can  stand.  I  seek 
therefore,  your  interest  and  your  faith 
and  your  prayers  that  perchance  I  may 
drop  a  word  or  two  that  may  be  com- 
forting to  us. 

I  am  happy  this  afternoon  to  be  one 
of  you,  to  be  engaged  in  this  wonderful 
work  of  the  Church.  I  am  especially 
happy  and  grateful  this  afternoon  for 
the  privilege  of  bringing  my  wife  with 
me  to  this  meeting.  Some  of  you  will 
remember  that,  just  a  little  more  than 
two  years  ago,  reporters  came  over  from 
the  Deseret  News  and  asked  for  a  story 
they  could  publish  in  the  event  she 
would  pass  away.  Through  the  faith 
and  prayers  of  the  Brethren,  through  her 
faith  and  courage,  she  is  still  with  us, 
and  for  the  whole  time  that  I  have  been 
one  of  your  servants,  she  has  stood  by 
my  side  and  traveled  with  me  being  a 
great  help  and  support  and  a  blessing 
to  the  people  with  whom  I  have  min- 
istered. For  this  I  am  truly  thankful. 
I  am  thankful  also,  regardless  of  the 
dangers  that  threaten  us  and  the  unholy 
conditions  that  prevail,  that  I  live  in 
this  nation. 


On  Saturday  morning,  this  body  ex- 
ercised the  privilege  of  expressing 
approval  and  acceptance  of  the  officers 
listed  by  the  Presidency  of  the  Church. 
It  was  the  voice  of  the  people — President 
Clark  expressed  it,  as  the  Doctrine  and 
Covenants  does,  as  the  common  consent 
of  the  people.  That  is  basic  in  the 
organization  of  the  Church  of  Jesus 
Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints — the  voice 
of  the  people.  If  we  are  going  to  meet, 
successfully,  the  conditions  of  which  we 
have  just  heard,  it  must  be  because  the 
voice  of  the  people  shall  rise  up  in  de- 
fense of  honesty,  integrity,  righteousness, 
and  correct  living  conditions.  I  think 
it  is  within  the  power  of  the  people  to 
bring  that  about  once  the  voice  of  the 
people  could  be  so  aroused. 

Then  I  remember  the  two  years  or 
more  I  studied  the  constitution  of  a  na- 
tion in  which  I  was  resident,  a  constitu- 
tion which  was  not,  as  ours,  the 
expression  of  the  body  of  the  people,  but 
a  constitution  which  was  gathered  out 
of  ours  and  the  French  Constitution  and 
adapted  to  that  nation.  It  has  taken 
more  than  a  hundred  years  for  those 
people  to  sense  the  import  of  their  con- 
stitution. 

I  once  heard  a  man  say,  "Democracy 
is  not  what  is  written  on  a  piece  of 
paper.  It  is  the  expression  of  what  is 
within  the  heart  of  men."  Our  country 
came  into  existence  just  that  way,  in 
that  the  power  is  resident  in  the  people 
and  that  every  right  and  every  privilege 


ELDER  ANTOINE  R.  WINS 


117 


that  is  given  to  our  officers  is  a  conces- 
sion, a  direct  concession  from  the  people. 

I  remember  reading  about  when  in  the 
Magna  Charta,  the  right  of  kings  was 
circumscribed  in  Great  Britain,  the  voice 
of  the  people  determined  that  certain 
things  only  could  be  exercised,  even  by 
men  who  claimed  that  they  presided  by 
divine  right,  the  divine  right  of  kings. 

That  voice,  brethren  and  sisters,  has 
come  down  to  us.  It  was  the  voice  which 
produced  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  of  America,  the  grandest  country 
in  the  world,  and  with  all  its  short- 
comings, and  with  all  the  evil  that  there 
is  in  it,  I  believe  that  it  comes  the  nearest 
to  being  a  civil  government  that  is  in 
harmony  with  the  principles  that  govern 
in  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter- 
day  Saints.  With  us  the  power  is  resi- 
dent in  the  priesthood  and  in  the  voice 
of  the  people.  If  we  could  bring  our 
priesthood  to  a  proper  appreciation  of 
its  function,  its  privilege,  we  could  deter- 
mine these  things.  Just  think  that  last 
evening  nearly  50,000  holders  of  the 
priesthood  scattered  all  over  these  United 
States,  heard  the  proceedings  of  the 
priesthood  meeting.  If  each  one  of  that 
50,000  persons  who  heard  could  rise  up 
in  righteous  indignation  against  this 
curse  of  which  we  have  heard,  it  would 
in  a  great  measure  be  reduced  if  not 
eradicated.  [See  conference  address  of 
Ezra  Taft  Benson] 

I  fear,  brethren  and  sisters,  that  we 
approach  these  topics  with  too  much 
apathy.  We  hardly  realize  the  power 
that  there  is  in  the  organization  which 
we  have.  Even  though  it  be  small  in 
numbers  compared  to  the  total  popula- 
tion of  the  United  States,  it  could  exer- 
cise a  tremendous  influence,  and  does,  as 
a  matter  of  fact,  for  righteousness 
throughout  the  country. 

I  wish  that  we  could  appreciate  it, 
that  we  could  fully  magnify  it.  Some  of 
us  are  very  late  in  coming  to  an  under- 
standing of  our  privileges.  Just  after 
the  morning  meeting  I  was  made  very 


happy  by  a  brother  who  came  to  me 
and  told  me  that  his  father  had  recently 
been  able,  eager,  and  willing  to  gather 
his  family  together  with  him  and  have 
his  endowments  in  the  temple.  That 
man  has  been  a  friend  of  mine  over  the 
years.  Just  why  he  never  came  along 
before,  I  do  not  know.  I  know  that  I 
have  loved  him  and  honored  him  and 
befriended  him  in  our  association  over 
the  years,  and  I  am  happy  beyond 
expression  to  realize  that  he  now  is 
assuming  a  part  of  his  rights  in  the  Mel- 
chizedek  Priesthood  of  the  Church. 

We  have  so  many  of  those  men, 
brethren  and  sisters,  who  are  slow  in 
understanding  the  advantages  of  it.  If 
we  could  add  that  hundred  thousand 
men  to  the  number  who  hold  the  Mel- 
chizedek  Priesthod  now,  there  is  no  ques- 
tion but  that  we  could  influence,  very 
greatly,  a  reduction  in  these  things  of 
which  we  have  heard. 

I  do  not  care  to  talk  a  long  while  this 
afternoon,  brethren  and  sisters,  but  I 
do  want  to  express  to  you  my  love  and 
appreciation  for  our  leaders  and  to  hope 
that  I  may  always  be  able  to  sustain 
them  and  uphold  their  hands,  and  may 
I  be  able  yet  many  years  to  mingle  with 
you  brethren  and  sisters  and  do  what 
I  can  to  help  with  the  organizations  of 
the  Church  with  which  we  deal. 

May  God  bless  us  all,  may  he 
strengthen  us,  give  us  courage,  may  he 
give  us  a  proper  understanding  and  ap- 
preciation of  the  source  of  power  in 
these  United  States,  and  the  reasons  for 
the  Constitution,  so  that  we  may  be  will- 
ing to  support  it  and  sustain  it,  I  pray,  in 
the  name  of  Jesus  Christ.  Amen. 

President  David  O.  McKay: 

He  to  whom  we  have  just  listened  is 
Elder  Antoine  R.  Ivins,  a  member  of  the 
First  Council  of  Seventy.  Elder  Gordon 
B.  Hinckley,  Assistant  to  the  Twelve, 
will  be  our  next  speaker. 


118 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


ELDER  GORDON  B.  HINCKLEY 

Assistant  to  the  Council  of  the  Twelve  Apostles 


My  dear  brethren  and  sisters,  I  seek 
the  direction  of  the  Lord  that  the  things 
I  say  may  be  in  harmony  with  the  in- 
spirational things  to  which  we  have 
listened  these  past  three  days. 

This  has  been  a  marvelous  conference. 
I  have  missed  one  voice.  That  is  the 
voice  of  President  Stephen  L  Richards. 
His  wisdom,  his  kindly  persuasion,  his 
unfailing  courtesy  were  always  an  in- 
spiration to  me,  and  I  shall  be  eternally 
grateful  to  him. 

I  rejoice  in  the  appointment  of  Presi- 
dent Henry  D.  Moyle  as  a  member  of 
the  First  Presidency.  I  am  grateful  for 
the  opportunity  of  working  under  his 
direction  in  the  great  missionary  pro- 
gram of  the  Church.  I  pledge  him  my 
loyalty  and  my  energy. 

I  rejoice  likewise  in  the  appointment 
of  Howard  W.  Hunter  to  the  Council  of 
the  Twelve. 

I  am  satisfied  that  the  Lord  guides 
this  work.  I  echo  the  words  of  the 
Psalmist:  ".  .  .  he  that  keepeth  Israel 
shall  neither  slumber  nor  sleep."  (Psalm 
121:4.) 

I  wish  to  say  a  few  words  in  further- 
ance of  the  theme  set  before  us  by  Presi- 
dent McKay  in  the  opening  address  of 
the  conference — "Preach  the  Word."  I 
have  in  mind  one  of  the  great  facilities 
available  to  us  in  carrying  forth  this 
assignment. 

The  other  day  in  a  stake  conference, 
I  heard  an  officer  of  the  Air  Force  stand 
before  the  group  and  tell  of  the  circum- 
stances surrounding  his  coming  into  the 
Church.    He  said  in  substance: 

"I  had  a  date  with  a  lovely  young 
woman.  When  I  called  for  her,  I  noticed 
on  the  table  a  copy  of  the  Book  of  Mor- 
mon. I  had  never  heard  of  it  before.  I 
began  to  read.  I  became  interested.  I 
secured  a  copy  of  the  book  and  read  it 
through. 

"I  had  only  the  traditional  idea  of 
God  and  Jesus  Christ.  I  had  never 
given  serious  thought  to  the  matter. 
But  as  I  read  this  book  there  came  into 
my  mind  light  and  understanding  of 
eternal  truths,  and  into  my  heart  a 
testimony  that  God  is  our  Eternal  Father, 
and  that  Jesus  is  our  Savior." 

I  am  confident  that  the  experience  of 


this  man  who  was  influenced  by  the 
Book  of  Mormon  is  similar  to  that  of 
many  others  of  our  people. 

Brethren  and  sisters,  if  there  are 
miracles  among  us,  certainly  one  of 
them  is  this  book.  Unbelievers  may 
doubt  the  First  Vision  and  say  there 
were  no  witnesses  to  prove  it.  Critics 
may  scorn  every  divine  manifestation 
incident  to  the  coming  forth  of  this  work 
as  being  of  such  an  intangible  nature 
as  to  be  unprovable  to  the  pragmatic 
mind,  as  if  the  things  of  God  could  be 
understood  other  than  by  the  Spirit  of 
God.  They  may  discount  our  theology. 
But  they  cannot  in  honesty  dismiss  the 
Book  of  Mormon.  It  is  here.  They  can 
feel  it.  They  can  read  it.  They  can 
weigh  its  substance  and  its  content. 
They  can  witness  its  influence. 

Faced  with  its  presence,  but  unwilling 
to  believe  the  story  of  its  coming  forth, 
they  have  sought  an  explanation  for  it, 
other  than  the  one  given  by  the  Prophet 
that  it  was  engraven  on  golden  plates 
by  ancient  prophet-historians,  and  that 
their  record  was  revealed  and  translated 
by  the  gift  and  power  of  God. 

The  Book  of  Mormon  was  first  printed 
on  a  little  hand-operated  flat-bed  press 
in  a  backwoods  village  of  New  York  in 
the  year  1830.  From  that  first  edition, 
while  critics  have  published  volume 
after  volume  in  an  effort  to  discredit 
the  Prophet's  story,  the  book  has  gone 
through  one  edition  after  another.  From 
English  it  has  been  translated  into 
thirty-one  other  languages,  and  printed 
in  twenty  of  these. 

While  its  detractors  have  called  it 
blasphemous,  the  work  of  a  paranoiac, 
the  outpouring  of  a  myth-maker,  the  re- 
sult of  a  man's  environment,  the  book 
has  gone  forth  to  change  for  good  the 
lives  of  men  and  women  in  a  score  of 
nations.  What  a  concourse  of  the  peo- 
ple of  the  earth  we  would  have  if  all 
of  those  who  have  read  this  book  and 
been  influenced  by  its  message  were 
gathered  together  in  one  place. 

The  first  edition  was  comprised  of 
5,000  volumes.  That  edition  met  all 
demands  for  a  number  of  years.  I  think 
you  may  be  interested  to  know  that  dur- 
ing the  first  nine  months  of  this  year, 


ELDER  GORDON  B.  HINCKLEY 


119 


more  than  350,000  copies  were  sold  in 
English  alone.  I  am  satisfied  that  by 
the  close  of  the  year  we  shall  have  sold 
more  than  500,000  copies  of  the  Book  of 
Mormon  in  various  languages,  all  within 
a  period  of  a  single  year.  We  now  dis- 
tribute every  three  or  four  days,  more 
copies  than  were  included  in  the  entire 
first  edition. 

The  same  book  which  converted  Brig- 
ham  Young,  Willard  Richards,  Orson 
and  Parley  Pratt,  and  many  others  of 
the  early  leaders  of  the  Church,  is  also 
converting  people  in  Germany,  in  the 
British  Isles,  in  Finland,  in  Japan,  in 
Tonga,  and  wherever  else  men  and 
women  are  reading  it  prayerfully  and 
with  real  intent.  The  promise  of 
Moroni,  written  in  his  loneliness,  fol- 
lowing the  destruction  of  his  people,  is 
being  fulfilled  every  day. 

Each  time  we  encourage  a  man  to 
read  the  Book  of  Mormon  we  do  him  a 
favor.  If  he  reads  it  prayerfully  and  with 
a  sincere  desire  to  know  the  truth,  he 
will  know  by  the  power  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  that  the  book  is  true.  And  from 
that  knowledge  there  will  flow  a  con- 
viction of  the  truth  of  many  other  things. 

For  if  the  Book  of  Mormon  is  true, 
then  God  lives.  Testimony  upon  testi- 
mony runs  through  its  pages  of  the 
solemn  fact  that  our  Father  is  real,  that 
he  is  personal,  that  he  loves  his  children 
and  seeks  their  happiness. 

If  the  Book  of  Mormon  is  true,  then 
Jesus  is  the  Son  of  God,  the  Only  Be- 
gotten of  the  Father  in  the  flesh,  born 
of  Mary,  "a  virgin  most  beautiful  above 
all  other  virgins,"  for  the  book  so  testi- 
fies in  a  description  unexcelled  in  all 
literature. 

If  the  Book  of  Mormon  is  true,  then 
Jesus  is  verily  our  Redeemer,  the  Savior 
of  the  world.  The  great  purpose  of  its 
preservation  and  coming  forth,  according 
to  its  own  statement,  is  "to  the  convinc- 
ing of  the  Jew  and  the  Gentile  that 
Jesus  is  the  Christ,  the  Eternal  God, 
manifesting  himself  unto  all  nations." 
(See  title  page  of  the  Book  of  Mormon.) 

If  the  Book  of  Mormon  is  true,  then 
this  land  is  choice  above  all  other  lands, 
but  if  it  is  to  remain  such  the  inhabitants 
of  the  land  must  worship  the  God  of  the 
land,  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  The  his- 
tories of  two  great  nations,  told  with 
warning  in  this  sacred  volume,  indicate 
that  while  we  must  have  science,  while 


we  must  have  education,  while  we  must 
have  arms,  we  must  also  have  righteous- 
ness if  we  are  to  merit  the  protection  of 
God,  as  Brother  Benson  has  so  eloquently 
indicated  here  this  afternoon. 

If  the  Book  of  Mormon  is  true,  Joseph 
Smith  was  a  Prophet  of  God,  for  he  was 
the  instrument  in  the  hands  of  God  in 
bringing  to  light  this  testimony  of  the 
divinity  of  our  Lord. 

If  this  book  is  true,  David  O.  McKay  is 
a  prophet,  for  he  holds  all  of  the  keys, 
the  gifts,  powers,  and  authority  held  by 
the  Prophet  Joseph  who  brought  forth 
this  latter-day  work. 

I  repeat,  if  the  Book  of  Mormon  is 
true,  the  Church  is  true,  for  the  same 
authority  under  which  this  sacred  rec- 
ord came  to  light  is  present  and  mani- 
fest among  us  today.  It  is  a  restoration 
of  the  Church  set  up  by  the  Savior  in 
Palestine.  It  is  a  restoration  of  the 
Church  set  up  by  the  Savior  when  he 
visited  this  continent  as  set  forth  in 
this  sacred  record. 

If  the  Book  of  Mormon  is  true,  the 
Bible  is  true.  The  Bible  is  the  Testament 
of  the  Old  World.  The  Book  of  Mor- 
mon is  the  Testament  of  the  New.  The 
one  is  the  record  of  Judah,  the  other  is 
the  record  of  Joseph,  and  they  have 
come  together  in  the  hand  of  the  Lord 
in  fulfilment  of  the  prophecy  of  Ezekiel. 
Together  they  declare  the  Kingship  of 
the  Redeemer  of  the  world,  and  the 
reality  of  his  kingdom. 

Here  is  a  voice  that  has  spoken  from 
the  dust  with  a  familiar  spirit,  and 
touched  the  hearts  of  men  and  women 
in  many  lands.  Those  who  have  read 
it  prayerfully,  be  they  rich  or  poor, 
learned  or  unlearned,  have  grown  under 
its  power. 

Let  me  tell  you  of  a  letter  which  we 
received  a  few  years  ago.  A  man  wrote 
saying  in  substance:  "I  am  in  a  federal 
reformatory  in  Ohio.  I  recently  came 
across  a  copy  of  the  Book  of  Mormon 
in  the  prison  library.  I  have  read  it, 
and  when  I  read  Mormon's  lamentation, 
over  his  fallen  people — 'O  ye  fair  ones, 
how  could  ye  have  departed  from  the 
ways  of  the  Lord,  how  could  ye  have 
rejected  that  Jesus,  who  stood  with  open 
arms  to  receive  you!  Behold,  if  ye  had 
not  done  this,  ye  would  not  have 
fallen.  .  .  .'  (Mormon  6:17-18.)  When 
I  read  this  I  felt  that  Mormon  was 


120 

Sunday,  October  11 

talking  to  me.  Can  I  get  a  copy  of  that 
book?" 

We  sent  him  a  copy.  He  walked  in 
the  office  some  months  later,  a  changed 
man.  I  am  happy  to  report  that  a  boy 
who  had  stolen  gasoline,  and  then 
stolen  automobiles,  and  then  done  other 
things  until  finally  he  was  placed  in  a 
federal  reformatory,  was  touched  by  the 
spirit  of  this  book,  and  the  report  today 
is  that  he  is  now  a  successful  man,  re- 
habilitated, earning  a  living  honestly 
for  himself  and  family  in  a  west  coast 
city. 

Such  has  been  the  power  of  this  great 
book  in  the  lives  of  those  who  have  read 
it  prayerfully. 

I  give  you  my  testimony  that  it  is 
true.  That  I  know  by  the  witness  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,  and  that  knowledge  to 
me  is  certain. 

Sidney  Rigdon  did  not  write  it.  Oliver 
Cowdery  did  not  write  it.  It  is  not  the 
result  of  a  paranoiac  or  of  a  dissociated 
personality,  as  some  have  said.  It  is  not 
the  product  of  a  myth-maker.  It  is  not 
the  result  of  the  environment  of  a  farm 
boy  who  grew  up  in  western  New  York. 
Joseph  Smith  did  not  write  it.  He,  the 
Prophet  of  this  dispensation,  translated 
the  writings  of  prophets  of  old  under  the 
power  of  God,  to  testify  in  our  day. 

We  invite  all  men  everywhere  to  read 
it.   Its  witness  lies  within  itself. 

I  so  testify.  This  marvelous  record, 
preserved  over  fourteen  centuries,  has 
confirmed  my  faith  in  God,  in  my  Re- 
deemer, in  the  land  in  which  I  live,  in 
the  work  of  which  I  am  a  part.  I  leave 
you  my  witness  in  the  name  of  Jesus 
Christ.  Amen. 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


Third  Day 


President  David  O.  McKay: 


We  have  just  listened  to  Elder  Gordon 
B.  Hinckley,  Assistant  to  the  Council 
of  the  Twelve. 

The  Choir  and  Congregation  will 
now  sing  "How  Firm  a  Foundation," 
conducted  by  Elder  Jay  E.  Welch,  As- 
sistant Choir  Conductor.  After  the 
singing,  we  shall  hear  from  Elder 
Howard  W.  Hunter. 


The  Tabernacle  Choir  and  the  Con- 
gregation sang  the  hymn,  "How  Firm  A 
Foundation,"  conducted  by  Jay  E. 
Welch,  Assistant  Choir  Conductor. 


President  David  O.  McKay: 

Yesterday,  it  was  my  privilege  to  rep- 
resent the  First  Presidency  and  the 
Council  of  the  Twelve,  and  notify  Elder 
Howard  W.  Hunter  that  he  had  been 
chosen  of  the  Lord  to  be  a  special  wit- 
ness to  the  divinity  of  the  love,  and  the 
labors,  the  life  and  death  of  Jesus  Christ, 
the  beloved  Son  of  our  Father.  That 
was  the  first  he  knew  about  his  having 
been  so  chosen. 

Yesterday,  you  voted  unanimously  to 
sustain  him  as  one  of  the  Council  of  the 
Twelve.  We  welcome  him  this  after- 
noon to  this  honored  position  and  pray 
God  to  inspire  him  and  to  bless  him  as 
he  goes  forth  to  declare  the  divinity  of 
this  great  work  and  the  Sonship  of  Him 
who  stands  at  the  head  of  the  Gospel 
of  Jesus  Christ. 


ELDER  HOWARD  W.  HUNTER 

Of  the  Council  of  the  Twelve  Apostles 


I  do  not  know  what  one  should  say 
who  has  been  so  newly  called  and 
sustained,  so  I  will  tell  you  what  is  in 
my  heart  this  afternoon. 

I  love  the  Church.  I  want  you  to 
know  that  I  love  our  great  leader,  Presi- 
dent McKay,  and  with  all  my  heart 
and  soul  I  sustain  him  as  prophet,  seer, 
and  revelator.  And  I  sustain  President 
Clark  and  President  Moyle,  President 
Smith,  the  President  of  the  Council  of 


the  Twelve,  each  individual  member  of 
that  Council,  and  all  of  the  General 
Authorities. 

Not  many  of  you  know  me,  so  per- 
haps you  would  permit  me  to  be  just 
a  little  bit  personal  this  afternoon.  I 
have  lived  most  of  my  life  in  California, 
having  been  born  in  Boise,  Idaho,  and 
having  lived  there  until  I  was  graduated 
from  high  school. 

I  am  grateful  for  a  humble  home,  for 


ELDER  HOW  A, 

modest  circumstances,  for  my  father  and 
my  mother,  both  of  whom  reside  in 
California. 

It  was  in  California  that  I  met  my 
companion.  We  came  to  the  temple 
here  in  Salt  Lake  City  where  we  were 
married  and  sealed  for  eternity.  We 
have  had  three  sons,  one  of  whom  was 
called  home  in  infancy.  Our  second 
son,  having  completed  a  mission  in 
Australia,  is  now  in  his  last  year  at 
Brigham  Young  University.  He  mar- 
ried his  sweetheart  in  the  temple  and 
caused  us  to  become  grandparents  just 
a  few  days  ago.  Our  other  son  is  now 
serving  in  Australia  in  the  mission  field. 

We  have  been  grateful  for  our  home 
and  the  fact  that  our  boys  have  stayed 
close  to  the  program  of  the  Church. 
My  wife  has  been  a  sweet  and  loving 
companion  and  has  always  sustained  me 
in  the  callings  which  have  come  to  me. 

I  had  the  privilege  of  serving  as  a 
bishop  in  the  Church  for  a  little  more 
than  six  years.  I  am  grateful  for  the 
people  of  that  ward  and  the  lessons  they 
taught  me  and  the  opportunities  that 
came  to  me.  For  nearly  ten  years  I  have 
served  as  president  of  the  Pasadena  Stake 
in  California.  Again  I  am  grateful  for 
those  people,  for  their  love  and  their 
affection,  for  their  sustaining  influence, 
for  the  counselors  that  have  worked  with 
me.  I  am  grateful  to  the  Church  for 
all  of  these  things  and  what  it  has 
meant  to  us  in  our  life. 

Before  I  was  graduated  from  law 
school,  three  boys  were  born  to  us.  Since 
that  time  I  have  been  engaged  in  the 
private  practice  of  law — until  yesterday. 
Somebody  asked  me  yesterday  what  my 
plans  are,  and  the  only  answer  I  could 
give  is  that  I  have  not  yet  been  told 
what  my  plans  are. 

I  want  you  to  know  that  I  have  a 
firm,  uncompromising  conviction  that 
God  lives,  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ,  that 
the  gospel  was  restored  in  this  latter 
dispensation  by  the  instrumentality  of 
the  Prophet  Joseph  Smith.  I  have  an 
abiding  conviction  of  the  truthfulness 
of  this  fact  and  that  our  President,  whom 
we  sustained  at  this  conference,  holds 
those  same  keys,  powers,  and  authority. 

I  do  not  apologize  for  the  tears  that 
come  to  my  eyes  on  this  occasion  because 
I  believe  that  I  face  friends,  my  brethren 
and  sisters  in  the  Church,  whose  hearts 
beat  the  same  as  mine  today,  in  the 


D  W.  HUNTER  121 

thrill  of  the  gospel  and  in  service  to 
others. 

President  McKay,  I  want  you  to  know, 
and  all  of  the  membership  of  the  Church 
to  know,  that  I  accept,  without  reserva- 
tion, the  call  which  you  have  made  of 
me,  and  I  am  willing  to  devote  my  life 
and  all  that  I  have  to  this  service.  Sister 
Hunter  joins  me  in  this  pledge. 

May  I  request  today  your  prayers  on 
my  behalf,  for  I  know  that  only  with 
the  help  of  my  Heavenly  Father,  can  I 
meet  the  challenge  and  develop  those 
qualities  which  distinguish  the  other 
members  of  this  council  from  men  of 
the  world. 

I  am  grateful.  I  bear  my  testimony 
to  you  humbly.  May  we  go  forward  to- 
gether in  righteousness,  I  humbly  pray, 
in  Jesus'  name.  Amen. 

President  David  O.  McKay: 

We  have  just  listened  to  the  accept- 
ance testimony  from  the  man  who  was 
called  to  fill  the  vacancy  in  the  Council 
of  the  Twelve,  Elder  Howard  W. 
Hunter. 

The  Tabernacle  Choir  will  favor  us 
with  "Mine  Eyes  Have  Seen  The  Glory 
Of  The  Coming  Of  The  Lord,"  con- 
ducted by  Elder  Richard  P.  Condie.  The 
closing  prayer  will  be  offered  by  Brother 
Rulon  T.  Hinckley,  patriarch  of  the 
Emigration  Stake. 

The  singing,  as  you  know,  for  this 
afternoon  has  been  furnished  by  the 
members  of  the  Tabernacle  Choir,  and 
we  have  thrilled  with  the  excellency 
of  their  singing.  We  express  apprecia- 
tion and  gratitude  for  the  public  press, 
the  reporters'  fair  and  accurate  reports 
throughout  the  sessions  of  this  Confer- 
ence. We  appreciate  the  cooperation  of 
city  officials,  Police  Chief  W.  Cleon 
Skousen,  and  his  associates,  the  traffic 
officers  in  their  masterful  handling  of 
the  increased  traffic  on  these  streets. 

We  express  appreciation  for  the  Fire 
Department  and  the  Red  Cross,  stand- 
ing ready  for  any  emergency,  and  there 
have  been  several.  Their  prompt  atten- 
tion has  given  relief  to  those  who  needed 
it.  We  express  appreciation  to  the 
ushers  of  the  Tabernacle  who  have 
rendered  service  early  and  late  in  seat- 
ing the  great  audiences. 

Again  we  express  appreciation  for  the 
radio  and  television  service  rendered 


122 

Sunday,  October  11 

by  the  various  radio  and  television  sta- 
tions here  in  our  own  city,  and  state, 
and  also  in  other  states,  named  in  the 
various  sessions  of  our  Conference.  Be- 
sides the  great  audiences  attending  this 
Conference  on  Temple  Square,  a  survey 
indicates,  as  we  reported  this  morning, 
that  one  million  people  have  heard  and 
seen  the  proceedings  of  this  conference 
through  radio  and  television  in  eighteen 
major  cities  throughout  the  West.  This 
figure  is  based  on  the  ratio  of  each  city 
carrying  the  Conference  and  the  num- 
ber of  viewers  per  city. 

We  appreciate  those  who  furnished 
the  singing  throughout  this  entire  Con- 
ference: First,  the  Relief  Society  Singing 
Mothers  from  the  Jordan  Valley  Region; 
second,  the  Combined  Choruses  of  the 
Latter-day  Saints  Institute  of  Religion 
and  University  of  Utah,  and  the  Bonne- 
ville Strings;  third,  the  Men's  Chorus  of 
the  Tabernacle  Choir  last  night  who 
thrilled  us  with  their  excellent  singing; 
and  today,  this  great  Tabernacle  Choir. 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


Third  Day 

We  have  been  truly  blessed  throughout 
this  Conference  with  the  best  singing 
that  anybody  in  the  world  would  hear 
under  these  circumstances.  Everybody 
in  this  audience,  the  million  who  have 
listened,  will  agree  that  the  singing  has 
been  of  such  high  order  that  it  may  be 
classed  as  among  the  best  in  all  the 
world. 

Again  at  the  conclusion  of  our  Con- 
ference we  express  appreciation  for  the 
beautiful  Hawaiian  flowers  you  see 
arranged  here  on  the  pulpit.  We  thank 
all  those  who  have  contributed  in  any 
way  to  the  success  and  inspiration  of  this 
great  Conference.  The  address  given 
this  morning  at  7:30  by  Elder  Richard  L. 
Evans,  you  may  hear  again  this  evening 
over  the  radio  at  eight  o'clock. 

Tonight,  the  Deseret  Sunday  School 
Union  Conference  will  convene  in  this 
building  at  seven  o'clock.  All  Sunday 
School  workers  will  wish  to  be  in  at- 
tendance. The  public  is  cordially  in- 
vited. 


PRESIDENT  DAVID  O.  McKAY 


And  now,  my  brethren  and  sisters, 
just  a  word  in  parting. 

This  has  truly  been  a  great  conference. 
We  have  met  during  a  critical  time  in 
the  history  of  our  own  great  country 
and  the  history  of  the  world.  I  have 
been  impressed  with  the  answer  that 
you  have  given  through  the  Brethren 
here  and  through  your  acceptance,  to 
some  of  the  false  ideologies  and  teach- 
ings that  are  rampant  in  the  world.  One 
of  those  is,  that  man  is  not  a  spiritual 
being,  but  that  he  is  just  as  any  other 
animal,  subject  to  his  passions,  subject 
to  his  yearnings,  desires,  and  justified  in 
achieving  his  ambitions  no  matter  how 
many  others  may  surfer  in  that  achieve- 
ment. 

You  have  said  today  and  yesterday 
and  the  day  before,  in  your  testimonies 
that  man  is  a  dual  being — he  is  physical, 
has  his  appetites,  passions,  desires,  just 
as  any  animal  has,  but  he  is  also  a 
spiritual  being,  and  he  knows  that  to 
subdue  the  animal  instincts  is  to  achieve 
advancement  in  his  spiritual  realm;  that 
a  man  who  is  subjected  to  his  physical 
appetites  and  passions  only,  who  denies 
any  reality  of  a  spirit,  is  truly  of  the 
animal  world;  that  man  is  a  spiritual 


being,  and  his  real  life  is  the  spirit  that 
inhabits  his  body. 

Ex-President  Adams  was  right,  when 
he  was  accosted  on  the  streets  of  Bos- 
ton one  day  and  was  asked,  "How  is 
John  Quincy  Adams  today?"  and  he 
answered,  as  he  tottered  along  with  his 
cane,  "John  Quincy  Adams  is  well, 
thank  you,  quite  well.  But  the  house 
in  which  he  lives  is  tottering  on  its 
foundations,  the  windows  are  shaking, 
the  roof  is  leaking,  the  doors  are  not 
hanging  straight,  and  so  on,  and  I  think 
that  John  Quincy  Adams  will  have  to 
move  out  of  it  soon.  But  John  Quincy 
Adams  himself  is  quite  well,  I  thank  you, 
quite  well."  He  sensed  that  the  real 
John  Quincy  Adams  was  an  immortal 
being,  a  son  of  a  Father  in  heaven. 

That  is  one  great  truth  to  which  you 
have  borne  testimony  in  this  confer- 
ence— that  man  is  spirit,  the  son  of  his 
Father,  and  has  within  him  that  which 
will  cause  him  to  yearn  and  to  aspire  to 
become  dignified  as  a  son  of  God  should 
be  dignified.  The  dignity  of  man,  not 
the  degradation  of  man,  has  been  empha- 
sized throughout  this  conference. 

Another  false  ideal  which  has  been 
mentioned  as  rampant  by  a  small  group 


PRESIDENT  DAVID  O.  McKAY 


123 


of  men,  controlling  millions  now,  is  the 
denial  of  the  existence  of  a  Creator,  that 
there  is  no  God.  The  man  who  repre- 
sents that  group  was  recently  enter- 
tained in  this  nation.  Just  before  he 
came  he  declared  over  his  own  signature 
that  he  is  still  an  atheist  and  will  con- 
tinue to  be,  and  will  fight  religion  as 
an  "opiate"  to  the  human  mind. 

Every  man  who  stood  at  this  pulpit, 
I  think  without  exception,  has  borne 
witness  that  God  lives,  and  he  knows 
that  he  lives.  And  there  has  been  quoted 
the  evidence  of  men  who  have  lived 
through  the  ages  who  have  borne  that 
same  testimony.  And  they  are  honorable 
men.  They  are  honest  men.  They 
would  not  lie.  They  sent  their  written 
messages  to  people  whom  they  loved,  as 
you  and  I  love  our  loved  ones,  our 
children,  our  husbands,  and  our  wives. 

Paul  sent  his  letter  saying,  "For  I  de- 
livered unto  you  first  of  all  that  which  I 
also  received,  how  that  Christ  died  for 
our  sins  according  to  the  scriptures; 

"And  that  he  was  buried,  and  that  he 
rose  again  the  third  day  according  to 
the  scriptures: 

"And  that  he  was  seen  of  Cephas, 
then  of  the  twelve: 

"After  that,  he  was  seen  of  above  five 
hundred  brethren  at  once;  of  whom  the 
greater  part  remain  unto  this  present," 
[as  much  as  to  say,  "You  can  see  them 
and  converse  with  them"]  "but  some  are 
fallen  asleep. 

"After  that,  he  was  seen  of  James; 
then  of  all  the  apostles. 

"And  last  of  all  he  was  seen  of  me 
also,  as  of  one  born  out  of  due  time. 

"For  I  am  the  least  of  the  apostles, 
that  am  not  meet  to  be  called  an  apostle, 
because  I  persecuted  the  church  of  God." 
(I  Cor.  15:3-9.) 

But  he  bore  his  testimony  and  gave 
his  life  for  this  testimony  and  was  happy 
in  doing  it. 

One  of  the  Brethren  quoted  him  today, 
from  his  last  letter  to  Timothy: 

"I  have  fought  a  good  fight,  I  have 
finished  my  course,  I  have  kept  the 
faith. 

"Henceforth  there  is  laid  up  for  me  a 
crown  of  righteousness,  which  the  Lord, 
the  righteous  judge,  shall  give  me  at  that 
day:  and  not  to  me  only,  but  unto  all 
them  also  that  love  his  appearing."  (II 
Tim.  4:7-8.) 

Thank  heaven  there  are  hundreds 


and  thousands  who  believe  that  testi- 
mony and  repudiate  the  claims  of  the 
atheists  who  boast  that  man  is  his  own 
god,  and  have  already  poisoned  the 
minds  of  a  generation  of  young  men  and 
women.  They  started  this,  as  some  of 
you  will  remember,  forty  years  ago,  and 
during  that  forty  years  they  have 
poisoned  those  young  boys  and  girls  with 
the  thought  that  there  is  no  God. 

At  the  conclusion  of  this  session  to- 
day, I  wish  to  emphasize  the  fact  that 
this  great  conference  has  testified  to  the 
hundreds  of  thousands  listening  in,  and 
all  the  world — for  these  testimonies  will 
be  printed — that  God  lives  and  further- 
more, that  Jesus  is  his  Beloved  Son,  the 
Savior  of  the  world,  and  those  who  have 
seen  Jesus,  who  walked  with  him,  who 
testify  of  him,  as  I  have  narrated,  heard 
him  say,  "he  that  hath  seen  me  hath 
seen  the  Father." 

You  remember  during  the  Last  Supper, 
Philip  said  to  Jesus,  "Lord  shew  us  the 
Father."  And  his  answer  was,  "Have  I 
been  so  long  time  with  you,  and  yet  hast 
thou  not  known  me,  Philip?  .  .  .  and 
how  sayest  thou  then,  Shew  us  the 
Father?"  (John  14:8-9.) 

We  have  given  an  answer  to  the 
world.    I  think  it  is  glorious. 

Furthermore,  you  have  given  an  an- 
swer to  the  false  teachings  that  man  is 
not  a  free  individual,  that  he  is  a  crea- 
ture of  the  state,  that  the  state  is  supreme, 
that  the  state  can  tell  what  you  should 
do,  what  you  should  not  do.  Man  is  a 
spiritual  being  and  has  within  him  as 
a  gift  from  God,  his  Creator,  the  power 
of  choice.  Part  of  man's  divinity,  part 
of  his  spirit-being,  is  the  power  to 
choose — the  only  creature  on  earth  that 
has  that  power.  It  is  God-given.  Men 
who  will  deny  him  that,  take  from  him 
part  of  his  divinity.  You  have  answered 
that.  Your  testimonies  are  now  on 
record. 

Another  thing — you  have  borne  testi- 
mony throughout  this  conference  to  the 
right  of  the  family,  its  influence  and 
fundamental  contribution  as  a  unit  to 
the  state.  The  family  is  the  foundation 
of  the  state  and  should  not  be  broken 
up.  In  China  where  they  love  their 
children  and  where  they  train  them  and 
teach  them  to  be  obedient,  where  the 
children  respect  their  parents  and  obey 
their  parents,  the  family  is  broken  up 
now,  and  they  have  to  meet  in  com- 


124 


GENERAL  CONFERENCE 


Sunday,  October  11 

munistic  groups.  They  will  not  stand 
for  that  very  long;  they  will  break  away 
from  it.  You,  during  this  conference, 
have  borne  testimony  to  the  sacredness 
of  the  family,  the  father  and  the  mother 
and  the  children.  You  have  borne  testi- 
mony of  the  responsibility  of  the  father 
and  the  mother  to  train  those  children 
in  the  ways  of  the  Lord,  teach  them 
baptism  and  repentance,  or  the  responsi- 
bility will  be  "upon  the  heads  of  the 
parents." 

Furthermore,  you  have  borne  testi- 
mony to  the  world  that  man  is  not 
living  for  himself,  that  his  selfish  desires 
should  be  overcome  and  controlled,  and 
he  should  render  service  to  others.  One 
of  the  greatest  sayings  of  Jesus  when  he 
was  among  the  Twelve  during  his  two- 
and-a-half  years  here,  was  the  one  that 
touched  upon  that  same  principle:  "He 
that  findeth  his  life  shall  lose  it.  .  .  ." 
[that  is  the  selfish  part]  "and  he  that 
loseth  his  life  for  my  sake  shall  find  it." 
(Matt.  10:39.)  A  paradoxical  state- 
ment, but  oh,  how  true.  You  have  had 
an  evidence  of  it  here  today  when  Elder 
Hunter  said,  "I  give  my  life  now  for  the 
service,"  the  same  with  these  other  apos- 
tles, the  same  with  all  the  General  Au- 
thorities of  the  Church,  with  all  the 
congregation,  with  thousands  and  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  throughout  the  world 
who  have  accepted  the  gospel  of  Jesus 
Christ.  You  are  willing  to  lose  your 
life — that  is,  to  devote  your  time  and 
your  talents  and  your  strength  for  his 
sake;  and  in  so  doing  you  will  find  your 
life. 

I  often  quote  a  man  who  was  im- 
pressed with  that  great  principle,  who 
wrote — 

"Supposing  today  were  your  last  day  on 
earth, 

The  last  mile  of  the  journey  you've  trod; 
After  all  of  your  efforts,  how  much  are 

you  worth? 
How  much  can  you  take  home  to  God? 
"Don't  count  as  possessions  your  silver 

and  gold; 
Tomorrow  you  leave  these  behind; 
And  all  that  is  yours  to  have  and  to  hold 
Is  the  service  you've  given  mankind." 

Anon. 

Quoted  from  Gospel  Ideals,  page  58. 

That  is  true,  but  to  you  it  is  not  all 
that  you  take  home  to  God,  because 


Third  Day 

you  take  home  to  him  your  character, 
and  he  will  judge  you  accordingly,  and 
you  will  take  home  to  him,  if  you  have 
been  through  the  temple  worthily,  your 
loved  ones. 

Now  these  are  just  some  of  the 
thoughts  that  came  at  the  conclusion 
of  this  great  conference. 

Yours  is  a  great  mission.  Our  thanks 
to  God  our  Father  for  it.  Our  member- 
ship in  his  Church,  and  our  privilege 
of  association  in  the  brotherhood  of 
Christ  cannot  be  overstated.  Morning, 
noon,  and  night,  all  through  our  lives 
our  souls  are  filled  with  gratitude  for 
the  blessings  that  are  ours  in  our  asso- 
ciations in  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ. 
It  is  a  glorious  opportunity! 

Now,  my  brethren  and  sisters,  I  bless 
you  with  increased  testimony  of  God's 
existence,  increased  testimony  of  the 
divinity  of  Christ's  mission,  his  life, 
his  death,  his  establishing  of  the  gospel; 
with  increased  testimony  of  the  value 
of  the  individual — oh,  how  important 
and  how  glorious — how  full  of  signifi- 
cance are  the  glorious  words,  "For  be- 
hold, this  is  my  work,"  said  the  Lord, 
"and  my  glory- — -to  bring  to  pass  the 
immortality  and  eternal  life  of  man." 
(Moses  1:39.)  Is  not  that  wonderful? 
What  would  this  old  earth  be  if  there 
were  no  human  beings  on  earth,  even 
if  there  were  no  animals — only  rocks, 
the  barren  shores,  the  rolling  seas — no 
life,  no  human  beings?  What  a  won- 
derful statement,  what  a  wonderful  re- 
ligious revelation  to  the  human  family: 
"This  is  my  work  and  my  glory — to  bring 
to  pass  the  immortality  and  eternal 
life"  of  each  individual. 

God  help  us  so  to  live  that  we  may 
be  found  worthy  to  hear  from  him  the 
whisperings  of  his  Spirit,  the  whisper- 
ing of  his  voice,  as  he  guides  us  and 
warns  us  and  tells  us  what  to  do  in 
order  to  come  back  and  help  him  crown 
his  glory. 

That  is  a  wonderful  saying  of  Peter's, 
the  rough  old  fisherman,  when  after 
two  years  and  more,  after  he  had  a 
testimony  in  his  heart  that  God  lives, 
that  Jesus  Christ  is  the  Son  of  God,  he 
wrote  to  the  people  over  whom  he  was 
presiding  and  used  the  phrase,  which 
I  wish  all  of  you  would  think  about 
and  cherish,  that  God  has  made  us 
"partakers  of  the  divine  nature."  Read 
it  in  his  epistle. 


PRESIDENT  D 

And  I  hope  you  brethren,  presidents 
of  stakes,  bishops  of  wards,  and  you 
who  preside  over  missions,  auxiliaries, 
priesthood  quorums,  will  some  day  ap- 
preciate, every  one  of  you,  just  what 
that  means,  to  be  in  touch  with  that 
divine  nature  through  the  Holy  Ghost. 

God  bless  you  in  your  homes.  Do 
not  be  cross.  Be  courteous.  Have  the 
same  courtesy  in  your  homes  that  you 
have  when  you  are  out  in  society. 
Thank  your  wives,  thank  your  children, 
say,  "if  you  please,"  "excuse  me," — 
those  little  things  which  make  life 
sweet.  Let  us  be  kind  in  our  homes. 
The  gospel  is  the  spirit  of  kindness. 
Let  us  be  considerate.  Let  us  be 
true.  "We  believe  in  being  honest,  true, 
chaste,  benevolent,  virtuous,  and  in  do- 
ing good  to  all  men; ...  If  there  is  any- 
thing virtuous,  lovely,  or  of  good  report 
or  praiseworthy,  we  seek  after  these 
things." 

I  pray  God  to  sanctify  to  our  good 
and  to  the  good  of  all  who  have  listened 
in  this  day  and  to  the  Church  every- 
where, the  blessings  and  testimonies  of 
this  great  conference,  in  the  name  of 
Jesus  Christ.  Amen. 


President  David  O.  McKay: 

We  shall  now  be  inspired  as  the  Tab- 
ernacle Choir  sings  "Mine  Eyes  Have 
Seen  the  Glory  of  the  Coming  of  the 
Lord,"  and  the  closing  prayer  will  be 
offered  by  Brother  Rulon  T.  Hinckley, 
patriarch  of  Emigration  Stake,  following 
which  this  Conference  will  be  adjourned 
for  six  months. 


/ID  O.  McKAY  125 

Singing  by  the  Tabernacle  Choir, 
"The  Battle  Hymn  Of  The  Republic." 

Elder  Rulon  T.  Hinckley,  patriarch 
of  Emigration  Stake,  offered  the  bene- 
diction. 

Conference  adjourned  for  six  months. 


The  Relief  Society  Singing  Mothers 
from  the  Jordan  Valley  Region  furnished 
the  music  for  the  morning  and  after- 
noon sessions,  Friday,  October  10,  with 
Sister  Florence  Jepperson  Madsen  con- 
ducting. 

At  the  Saturday  morning  and  after- 
noon sessions  the  music  was  furnished 
by  the  University  of  Utah  Choral  So- 
ciety (The  Institute  of  Religion  and  the 
University  of  Utah  Choruses  and  the 
Bonneville  Strings),  David  A.  Shand, 
Director. 

The  Men's  Chorus  of  the  Tabernacle 
Choir  furnished  the  music  for  the  Gen- 
eral Priesthood  meeting  Saturday,  Octo- 
ber 10,  with  Richard  P.  Condie 
conducting. 

The  music  for  the  Sunday  morning 
and  afternoon  sessions  was  furnished 
by  the  Salt  Lake  Tabernacle  Choir, 
Richard  P.  Condie  conducting,  assisted 
by  Jay  E.  Welch. 

Richard  P.  Condie  conducted  the 
singing  of  the  Tabernacle  Choir  at  the 
Tabernacle  Choir  and  Organ  broad- 
cast.  Frank  W.  Asper  was  at  the  organ. 

Accompaniments  and  interludes  on 
the  organ  were  played  by  Alexander 
Schreiner,  Frank  W.  Asper  and  Roy  M. 
Darley. 

JOSEPH  ANDERSON 
Clerk  of  the  Conference 


126 


CHURCH  OF  THE  AIR 


CHURCH  OF  THE  AIR 

Columbia  Broadcasting  System's 
Church  of  the  Air  was  presented  at 
7:30  a.m.,  Sunday,  October  11,  1959. 
The  program  was  as  follows: 

The  Tabernacle  Choir,  under  the 
direction  of  Richard  P.  Condie,  furnished 
the  music  for  this  service,  with  Alex- 
ander Schreiner  at  the  organ.  J.  Allen 
Jensen  was  the  announcer. 

Music:  Organ  and  humming  choir: 
"Sweet  Is  the  Work." 

Announcer:  The  Church  of  the  Air 
is  presented  by  CBS  Radio  so  that  rep- 
resentatives of  many  faiths  may  address 
a  nationwide  congregation.  Today's 
service,  in  connection  with  the  Semi- 
Annual  General  Conference  of  the 
Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-day 
Saints,  comes  to  you  from  the  Mormon 
Tabernacle  on  Temple  Square,  through 
the  facilities  of  Station  KSL  in  Salt  Lake 
City,  Utah.  Our  speaker  is  Richard  L. 
Evans,  a  member  of  the  Council  of  the 
Twelve  of  the  Church.  Music  is  by  the 
Tabernacle  Choir,  directed  by  Richard 
P.  Condie,  with  Alexander  Schreiner  at 
the  organ. 


With  the  music  of  Dudley  Buck,  the 
Tabernacle  Choir  first  presents  an  an- 
them with  words  from  an  Old  Testament 
text:  "Behold!  there  shall  be  a  day, 
when  the  watchman  upon  the  mountain 
top  shall  cry  aloud:  'arise,  ye!  get  ye  up 
unto  Mount  Zion,  unto  the  Lord  your 
God!'  Be  glad  and  rejoice!  ...  I,  even 
have  redeemed  thee!  .  .  ."  "Fear  Not  Ye, 
O  Israel." 

(The  Choir  sang:  "Fear  Not  Ye,  O 
Israel."— Buck-Griff  ity.) 

Announcer:  "The  morning  breaks;  the 
shadows  flee;  Lo,  Zion's  standard  is  un- 
furled! The  dawning  of  a  brighter  day, 
Majestic  rises  on  the  world."  These 
words  of  faith  and  assurance  by  Parley 
P.  Pratt  are  sung  now  by  the  Taber- 
nacle Choir  to  the  music  of  George 
Careless:  "The  morning  breaks,  the 
shadows  flee." 

(The  Choir  sang:  "The  Morning 
Breaks." — Careless. ) 

Announcer:  We  now  hear  on  this 
Church  of  the  Air  Service  Richard  L. 
Evans  of  the  Council  of  the  Twelve  of 
the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-day 
Saints,  frequently  referred  to  as  the 
Mormon  Church.  Today's  talk  is  titled: 
"The  Ultimate  Objective." 


ELDER  RICH 

Of  the  Council  of 

Each  year  on  a  day  so  designated,  we 
recall  the  birth  and  accomplishment  of 
Christopher  Columbus,  a  man  no  doubt 
inspired  of  God  to  do  what  he  did, 
against  all  ignorance,  against  all  odds 
and  obstacles.  He  is  a  symbol,  one 
among  many,  of  the  difficulties  men 
can  endure  if  they  have  sufficient  faith 
in  an  ultimate  objective. 

The  heroes  of  history,  and  the  lives 
of  those  less  known,  have  proved  they 
could  endure  working  and  waiting  and 
great  difficulty  and  discouragement,  if 
there  were  some  purpose,  some  hope, 
some  reasonable  assurance  of  the  ulti- 
mate objective. 

The  long  hard  journey  is  not  too 
long  if  "home"  is  at  the  other  end.  But 
aimlessness  would  give  men  little  reason 
for  lengthening  out  the  effort,  without 
some  assurance,  without  some  real  and 
solid  incentive. 


EID  L.  EVANS 

e  Twelve  Apostles 

Remembered  are  the  words  of  Robert 
Browning: 

"Ah,  but  a  man's  reach  should  exceed 

his  grasp, 
Or  what's  a  heaven  for?" 

But  his  reach  should  know  that  he  is 
reaching  for  something  real — or  his 
reach  will  weary  of  the  reaching. 

Everything  has  to  have  a  reason,  a 
purpose,  an  ultimate  answer.  And  for 
such  answers  men  have  searched  and 
sought:  Why  do  we  live?  What  are  the 
purposes  of  life?  Why  did  the  Creator 
create?  Why,  indeed,  were  worlds 
brought  into  being? 

For  answer  we  would  have  to  go  back 
to  the  basic,  literal  facts  of  our  rela- 
tionship to  God,  who  gave  us  the  op- 
portunity of  life,  and  who  is  in  fact 
the  Father  of  us  all. 


CHURCH  OF  THE  AIR 


127 


"In  the  beginning,"  we  read  in  sacred 
writ,  "God  created  the  heaven  and  the 
earth.  .  .  ."  (Genesis  1:1.) 

But  for  answer  we  would  have  to  go 
back  before  this  beginning,  with  God's 
great  plan  and  purpose:  the  Gospel,  we 
have  come  to  call  it,  which  we  heard 
in  the  heavens  before  time  began,  where 
we  were  with  our  Father,  the  Father  of 
our  spirits,  and  where  we  agreed  to 
enter  mortality  to  prove  ourselves  and 
learn  the  lessons  of  life,  and  where  we 
were  assured  our  Father  would  send  his 
own  beloved  Firstborn  Son  to  redeem 
us  from  death — that  Son  of  whom  Paul 
said,  "God  .  .  .  hath  appointed  heir  of 
all  things,  by  whom  also  he  made  the 
worlds;  Who  being  .  .  .  the  express  image 
of  his  person,  .  .  .  when  he  had  by  him- 
self purged  our  sins,  sat  down  on  the 
right  hand  of  the  Majesty  on  high.  .  .  ." 
(Heb.  1:1-3.) 

The  whole  intent  of  scripture  is  one 
of  establishing  our  relationship  with 
God,  our  Father,  and  with  his  Son,  our 
Savior,  and  with  the  eternal  plans  and 
purposes  for  each  and  all  of  us,  and 
our  relationships  to  life — and  to  one 
another  also. 

And  what  are  these  plans  and  pur- 
poses? What  would  a  loving  Father 
want  for  his  children?  What  would 
any  father  want  for  his  children?  Peace 
and  health  and  happiness;  learning  and 
progress  and  improvement;  and  ever- 
lasting life,  and  everlasting  association 
with  those  we  love.  What  less  could 
heaven  be?  What  less  would  a  Father 
plan  or  propose,  for  those  he  loves,  for 
those  whom  he  made  "in  his  own 
image"?  (Gen.  1:27.)  He  has  declared 
his  work  and  his  glory  "to  bring  to  pass 
the  immortality  and  eternal  life  of  man." 
(Pearl  of  Great  Price,  Moses  1:39.)  This 
is  the  ultimate  objective.  This  is  the 
whole  purpose  of  the  Gospel  he  has 
given. 

This  makes  life  meaningful,  everlast- 
ingly so.  This  is  the  assurance  that  gives 
incentive — that  gives  faith  in  the  face 
of  all  searching  uncertainty.  This 
makes  life  worth  all  the  anguish,  all 
the  effort,  as  we  make  our  way  through 
the  world — learning  that  life  is  for 
learning,  that  our  Father  sent  us  here 
for  a  period  of  proving,  not  to  lose  our 
way,  but  with  a  light  within  us  to  lead 
us,  if  we  will  be  led,  to  our  highest  pos- 


sibilities, with  freedom  and  faith  and 
with  a  few  simple  rules  to  keep,  which 
we  call  commandments. 

And  as  to  keeping  these  command- 
ments, we  have  our  choice — our  free 
agency,  as  it  has  come  to  be  called.  How 
could  it  be  otherwise?  How  could  we 
grow  without  it?  Who  can  learn  to 
make  decisions  if  someone  else  always 
does  the  deciding?  As  we  have  to  learn 
to  let  our  children  learn  much  for  them- 
selves (after  we  have  given  them  all 
the  counsel  we  reasonably  can),  so  our 
Father  in  heaven  has  sent  us  here  with 
freedom  to  decide  for  ourselves.  And  to 
help  us  to  decide,  he  has  given  us 
standards,  advice,  laws,  rules.  And  they 
are  not  arbitrary,  unrealistic  rules,  but 
are  simply  counsel  from  a  loving  Father, 
who  knows  us,  who  knows  our  nature. 
It  is  not  his  purpose  that  his  children 
should  be  unhappy.  No  father  intends 
to  have  his  children  unhappy.  And  for 
this  reason  he  has  given  us  command- 
ments for  our  health  and  happiness,  and 
peace  and  progress  and  quiet  conscience. 

In  a  remarkable  commencement  ad- 
dress, some  months  before  he  left  this 
life,  Mr.  Cecil  B.  DeMille  made  this 
moving  observation  concerning  freedom, 
and  the  purpose  of  life,  and  the  keeping 
of  the  commandments: 

"We  are  too  inclined  to  think  of  law 
as  something  merely  restrictive,"  he 
said,  "something  hemming  us  in.  We 
sometimes  think  of  law  as  the  opposite 
of  liberty.  But  that  is  a  false  concep- 
tion. That  is  not  the  way  that  God's 
inspired  prophets  and  lawgivers  looked 
upon  the  law.  Law  has  a  twofold 
purpose.  It  is  meant  to  govern.  It  is 
also  meant  to  educate.  .  .  . 

"God  does  not  contradict  himself.  He 
did  not  create  man  and  then,  as  an 
afterthought,  impose  upon  him  a  set  of 
arbitrary,  irritating,  restrictive  rules.  He 
made  man  free — and  then  gave  him  the 
commandments  to  keep  him  free. 

"We  cannot  break  the  Ten  Command- 
ments. We  can  only  break  ourselves 
against  them — or  else,  by  keeping  them, 
rise  through  them  to  the  fulness  of  free- 
dom under  God.  God  means  us  to  be 
free.  With  divine  daring,  he  gave  us 
the  power  of  choice."  (Excerpts  from 
the  Commencement  Address  at  Brigham 
Young  University,  May  31,  1957.) 

In  our  own  day  and  dispensation,  the 


128 


CHURCH  OF  THE  AIR 


Lord  has  restated  the  law  of  cause  and 
effect,  with  these  words:  "There  is  a 
law,  irrevocably  decreed  in  heaven  be- 
fore the  foundations  of  this  world,  upon 
which  all  blessings  are  predicated — And 
when  we  obtain  any  blessing  from  God, 
it  is  by  obedience  to  that  law  upon 
which  it  is  predicated."  (Doctrine  & 
Covenants  130:20-21.) 

The  commandments  are  not  old- 
fashioned,  out-dated,  or  merely  man- 
made.  They  apply  to  our  own  as  to 
other  ages.  And  whenever  we  do  any- 
thing basically  against  them,  we  pay  a 
price — not  because  someone  has  said 
so,  but  because  we  are  what  we  are,  and 
because  we  are  irrevocably  affected  by 
the  very  laws  of  life.  No  matter  what 
someone  says,  and  no  matter  who  would 
set  them  aside,  there  are  still  heartaches 
and  heartbreaks  and  inescapable  conse- 
quences for  those  who  lie  and  cheat  and 
bear  false  witness;  for  those  who  are 
immoral  and  unfaithful  to  loved  ones; 
for  those  who  abuse  themselves  physical- 
ly, who  indulge  appetites,  who  acquire 
harmful  habits;  for  those  who  set  aside 
sure  and  safe  standards,  who  are  coarse 
in  conduct,  and  run  contrary  to  the 
commandments,  to  the  basic  laws  of 
life. 

To  find  peace — the  peace  within,  the 
peace  that  passeth  understanding — men 
must  live  in  honesty,  honoring  each 
other,  honoring  obligations,  working 
willingly,  loving  and  cherishing  loved 
ones,  serving  and  considering  others, 
with  patience,  with  virtue,  with  faith 
and  forbearance,  with  the  assurance  that 
life  is  for  learning,  for  serving,  for  re- 
penting, and  improving.  And  God  be 
thanked  for  the  blessed  principle  of  re- 
penting and  improving,  which  is  a  way 
that  is  open  to  us  all. 

There  is  a  Kingdom,  and  there  is  a 
King.  And  there  are  requirements  for 
citizenship  in  the  Kingdom — command- 
ments, laws,  ordinances,  and  obliga- 
tions, and  what  is  required  of  us  for 
peace  in  this  world,  and  exaltation  in 
the  world  to  come,  is  to  follow  him  and 
keep  his  commandments. 

We  would  witness  this  day  that  the 
Lord  God  lives,  and  that  our  Lord  and 
Savior  Jesus  Christ,  his  Divine  and  only 
Begotten  Son,  did  redeem  us  from  death, 
and  even  now  is  our  advocate  with  the 
Father,  and  sits  by  his  Father's  side,  and 


that  the  fulness  of  the  Gospel  is  again 
on  earth  with  power  and  authority  to 
administer  in  its  saving  and  exalting 
ordinances. 

There  is  this  certainty  of  assurance 
also:  that  he  is  willing  to  reveal  his 
mind  and  will  to  us  today,  to  guide  us, 
to  hear  and  answer  prayer,  to  open  his 
arms  to  the  prayerful  and  repentant, 
even  as  he  has  done  in  other  days. 

And  against  the  tension  and  trouble 
of  our  time — against  injustice,  threats, 
and  force  and  fear;  want  and  worry; 
discouragement  and  despondency;  un- 
faithfulness and  duplicity;  and  much  of 
misunderstanding,  and  much  of  in- 
humanity from  man  to  man — against  all 
this  there  is  the  blessed  assurance  of 
the  glorious  ultimate  objective:  of  salva- 
tion for  all,  as  offered  by  our  Savior, 
and  of  exaltation  for  those  who  will  work 
at  it  and  win  it;  of  justice,  of  compen- 
sation, of  the  ultimate  defeat  of  evil;  of 
peace  and  of  progress  and  health  and 
happiness,  of  everlasting  life  with  sweet 
reunion  with  loved  ones. 

And  this  day  we  would  plead  with 
all  men,  the  searching  and  the  sorrow- 
ing, the  sick,  the  discouraged,  those 
burdened  with  sin  and  unquiet  con- 
science; those  who  feel  lost  and  lone- 
ly, and  those  who  have  lost  those  they 
love — to  all  we  would  plead:  take 
courage  and  faith  and  assurance,  ac- 
cording to  the  promises  and  purposes  of 
Him  who  is  the  Father  of  us  all,  who  is 
mindful  of  us  all. 

By  walking  in  his  ways  and  keeping 
his  commandments,  God  grant  that  all 
of  us  together  may  move  on  to  the  glori- 
ous ultimate  objective  that  is  offered  all 
of  us — to  the  highest  opportunities  of 
everlasting  life,  with  our  loved  ones  with 
us,  always,  and  forever,  in  Jesus'  name. 
Amen. 

(The  Choir  sang:  "How  Great  the 
Wisdom  and  the  Love." — Mclntyre.) 

Announcer:  The  Tabernacle  Choir 
has  recalled  a  sacramental  song  by  Eliza 
R.  Snow  with  the  music  of  Thomas 
Mclntyre:  "How  great  the  wisdom  and 
the  Love  that  filled  the  courts  on  high, 
And  sent  the  Savior  from  above  to  suffer 
bleed  and  die." 

And  now,  the  Tabernacle  Choir  closes 
with  the  words  of  Helen  A.  Dickinson, 
sung  in  a  worshipful  setting  by  D.  F.  E. 


CHOIR  AND  ORGAN  BROADCAST 


129 


Auber:  "O  Loving  Savior,  Slain  for  us. 
O  Sacrificial  Lamb  adored.  Now  in  Thy 
presence  pure  and  glorious,  we  lift  our 
hearts  to  Thee,  O  Lord." 

(The  Choir  sang:  "O  Loving  Saviour." 
— Auber-Dickinson. ) 

Music:  Organ  and  humming  choir: 
"Sweet  Is  the  Work." 

Announcer:  Today's  service  came  to 
you  from  the  Mormon  Tabernacle  on 
Temple  Square,  through  the  facilities  of 
Station  KSL  in  Salt  Lake  City,  Utah. 
Our  speaker  was  Richard  L.  Evans  of 
the  Council  of  the  Twelve  of  the  Church 
of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints. 
Music  was  by  the  Tabernacle  Choir, 
directed  by  Richard  P.  Condie.  Alex- 
ander Schreiner  was  at  the  organ. 

SALT  LAKE  MORMON 
TABERNACLE  CHOIR  AND  ORGAN 
BROADCAST 

The  following  broadcast,  written  and 
announced  by  Richard  L.  Evans,  and 
originating  with  Station  KSL,  Salt  Lake 
City,  Utah,  was  presented  from  8:30 
to  9:00  a.m.  Sunday,  October  11,  1959, 
through  the  courtesy  of  the  Columbia 
Broadcasting  System's  network,  through- 
out the  United  States,  parts  of  Canada, 
and  through  other  facilities  to  several 
points  overseas.  The  broadcast  was  as 
follows: 

(The  organ  played,  "As  the  Dew  From 
Heaven  Distilling,"  and  on  signal  the 
Choir  and  organ  broke  into  the  hymn, 
"Gently  Raise  the  Sacred  Strain,"  sing- 
ing the  words  to  the  end  of  the  second 
line,  and  humming  to  end  of  verse  for 
announcer's  background.) 

Announcer:  Once  more  we  welcome 
you  within  these  walls  with  music  and 
the  spoken  word  from  the  Crossroads  of 
the  West. 

The  CBS  Radio  Network  and  its  affili- 
ated stations  bring  you  at  this  hour  an- 
other presentation  from  Temple  Square 
in  Salt  Lake  City,  with  Richard  P. 
Condie  conducting  the  Tabernacle  Choir, 
Frank  Asper,  tabernacle  organist,  and 
the  spoken  word  by  Richard  Evans. 

The  Choir  sings  first  an  anthem  from 
Ernest  Bloch's  symphony  of  America: 
"America!  America!  Thy  name  is  in 
my  heart." 

(The  Choir  sang:  "America." — Bloch.) 

Announcer:  Frank  Asper,  Tabernacle 


Organist,  first  turns  on  Temple  Square 
today  to  a  devotional  theme  he  has  ar- 
ranged from  the  music  of  Franz  Josef 
Haydn:  "Truth  Divine." 

(Organ  Selection:  "Truth  Divine." — 
Haydn.) 

Announcer:  And  now  from  Temple 
Square  the  Tabernacle  Choir  sings 
Caesar  Franck's  impressive  setting  for 
the  150th  Psalm:  "O  Praise  Ye  The 
Lord,  Praise  God  in  His  Temple,  O 
Praise  Him  for  His  might,  and  the  great- 
ness of  His  wonders.  Let  everything 
that  hath  breath  praise  the  Lord." 

(The  Choir  sang:  "Praise  Ye  The 
Lord." — Franck-Leighter.) 

Announcer:  Frank  Asper  at  the  Tab- 
ernacle Organ  turns  to  one  of  his  own 
organ  offerings:  "Reflection." 

(Organ  Selection:  "Reflection." — As- 
per.) 

Announcer:  And  now  from  the  Choir 
comes  a  pleading,  fervent  sacred  song 
of  our  Savior:  "Abide  with  me;  'tis 
eventide!  The  day  is  past  and  gone; 
The  shadows  of  the  evening  fall;  The 
night  is  coming  on!  Within  my  heart 
a  welcome  guest,  Within  my  home 
abide;  .  .  .  O  Savior,  stay  this  night 
with  me;  Behold,  'tis  eventide." 

(The  Choir  sang:  "Abide  With  Me, 
'Tis  Eventide."— Millard.) 

Announcer: 

We  have  read  somewhere  in  some 
rules  of  safety  the  following  sentence: 
"Never  point  a  gun  at  anything  you 
don't  intend  to  shoot."  This  is  basic 
to  a  whole  series  of  parallel  precautions 
essentially  summarized  in  this  single 
short  sentence:  "Don't  start  what  you 
shouldn't  do."  It  applies  to  habits,  to 
projects  and  promises,  to  attitudes  and 
obligations,  to  every  threat,  to  every 
temptation,  and  to  every  intent.  The 
assumption  that  we  can  go  a  little  way 
in  the  wrong  way,  that  we  can  sin  a 
little,  lie  a  little,  break  the  law  a  little; 
that  we  can  be  a  little  unfaithful,  a  little 
dishonest;  or  that  we  can  start  many 
things  and  stop  them  any  time  we  want 
to,  whenever  and  wherever  we  want  to, 
without  involvement,  without  hurt  or 
harm,  without  falsely  encouraging  others, 
without  being  misunderstood,  without 
the  danger  of  going  farther  than  we  in- 
tended to  go,  is  a  false  and  unsafe  as- 
sumption. Those  who  find  themselves 
in  serious  or  embarrassing  situations 


130 


CHOIR  AND  ORGAN  BROADCAST 


frequently  say  they  didn't  intend  to  do 
what  they  did.  And  often  it  is  true 
that  they  didn't  intend  to  go  so  far. 
But  what  is  often  also  true  is  that  they 
did  entertain  the  idea,  or  they  did  take 
the  first  step:  they  did  make  the  prob- 
lem possible.  Like  the  man  who  points 
the  gun,  they  assumed  the  attitude  of 
intent.  Starting  is  so  often  easier  than 
stopping.  Habits  are  so  often  easier  to 
acquire  than  they  are  to  set  aside.  Re- 
lationships are  often  easier  to  begin  than 
to  break  off.  And  we  save  ourselves 
much  embarrassment,  much  explana- 
tion, much  heartache,  much  danger, 
much  tragedy  if  we  simply  don't  start 
what  we  shouldn't  do.  No  one  should 
flaunt  any  convention,  or  invite  any 
flirtation,  or  tempt  any  temptation,  or 
begin  a  habit  he  wouldn't  permanently 
want  to  have,  or  begin  any  relationship 
of  life  that  would  be  unsafe  or  unsavory 
or  unwise  to  follow  through.  There  is 
some  scripture  on  the  subject  which  says: 
"Abstain  from  all  appearance  of  evil."1 
This  also  could  be  cited:  "For  as  he 
thinketh  in  his  heart,  so  is  he."2  This 
all  points  up  to  the  attitude  of  intent. 
Don't  threaten  anything  you  shouldn't 
follow  through.  Even  would  we  say: 
Don't  think  to  do  anything  you  shouldn't 
do.  Avoid  not  only  the  appearance  of 
evil,  but  all  invitation  to  it.  In  short, 
avoid  the  very  attitude  of  intent.  If  you 
shouldn't,  just  don't  do  it. 

(The  Choir  sang:  "Glorious  Things 
Are  Sung  of  Zion." — Daynes.) 

Announcer:  With  the  words  of  Wil- 
liam W.  Phelps  we  have  heard  the 
Choir  sing  a  hymn  tune  by  Joseph  J. 
Daynes:  "Glorious  Things  Are  Sung  of 
Zion." 

*I  Thessalonians  5-22. 
2Proverbs  23:7. 


And  now  with  Dr.  Asper  at  the  Tab- 
ernacle Organ  we  hear  a  hymn  tune 
by  Louis  Gottschalk — a  sacramental 
song:  "God,  Our  Father,  hear  us  pray; 
Send  thy  grace  this  holy  day;  As  we 
take  of  emblems  blest,  On  our  Savior's 
love  we  rest." 

(Organ  Selection:  "God  Our  Father, 
Hear  Us  Pray." — Gottschalk.) 

Announcer:  In  closing  the  Tabernacle 
Choir  recalls  a  Welsh  chorale  by  R. 
H.  Prichard  as  arranged  by  Griffith  J. 
Jones,  with  the  words  of  Charles  Wes- 
ley: "Love  Divine,  all  love  excelling, 
Joy  of  heav'n,  to  earth  come  down;  Fix 
in  us  Thy  humble  dwelling,  All  Thy 
faithful  mercies  crown  .  .  .  Breathe,  0 
breathe  Thy  loving  Spirit,  into  ev'ry 
troubled  breast;  Let  us  all  in  Thee  in- 
herit, Let  us  find  the  promised  rest  .  .  . 
Come,  Almighty,  to  deliver,  Let  us  all 
thy  life  receive;  Suddenly  return,  and 
never,  Never  more  thy  temples  leave  .  .  ." 

(The  Choir  sang:  "Love  Divine." — 
Prichard-Jones.) 

Announcer:  Again  we  leave  you  with- 
in the  shadows  of  the  everlasting  hills. 
May  peace  be  with  you,  this  day — and 
always. 

This  concludes  the  fifteen  hundred 
seventy-third  presentation,  continuing 
the  31st  year  of  this  traditional  broad- 
cast from  the  Mormon  Tabernacle  on 
Temple  Square,  brought  to  you  by  CBS 
Radio  and  its  affiliated  stations,  originat- 
ing with  Radio  Station  KSL  in  Salt  Lake 
City. 

Richard  P.  Condie  conducted  the  Tab- 
ernacle Choir.  Frank  Asper  was  at  the 
Organ.  The  Spoken  Word  by  Richard 
Evans. 

In  another  seven  days,  at  this  same 
hour,  music  and  the  spoken  word  will 
be  heard  again  from  the  Crossroads  of 
the  West. 


Index 


Page 

Anderson,  Elder  Joseph    38 

Authorities  and  Officers  Present    1 

Authorities  and  Officers  Sustained   42 

Benson,  Elder  Ezra  Taft    Ill 

Brown,  Elder  Hugh  B   106 

Buehner,  Bishop  Carl  W   52 

Changes  in  Church  Organizations   38 

Cheever,  Bishop  Stanley  Smith   ,   75 

(General  Priesthood  Meeting) 

Choir  and  Organ  Broadcast    129 

Christiansen,  Elder  EIRay  L   68 

Church  of  the  Air   126 

Clark,  President  J.  Reuben,  Jr   45 

Clark,  President  J.  Reuben,  Jr.    85 

(General  Priesthood  Meeting) 
Clark,  President  J.  Reuben,  Jr.    42 

(Presentation  of  General  Authorities  and  Officers) 

Critchlow,  Elder  William  J.,  Jr   10 

Dyer,  Elder  Alvin  R   21 

Evans,  Elder  Richard  L   126 

(Church  of  the  Air) 

First  Day — Morning  Meeting    3 

First  Day — Afternoon  Meeting   18 

General  Authorities  and  Officers  Present    1 

General  Authorities,  Officers  and  Auxiliary  Officers  Sustained    42 

General  Priesthood  Meeting   74 

Hanks,  Elder  Marion  D   24 

Hill,  Bishop  Ralph  J    78 

(General  Priesthood  Meeting) 

Hinckley,  Elder  Gordon  B   118 

Hunter,  Elder  Howard  W   120 

Hunter,  Elder  Milton  R   29 

Isaacson,  Bishop  Thorpe  B.    95 

Ivins,  Elder  Antoine  R   116 

Kimball,  Elder  Spencer  W   57 

Longden,  Elder  John    27 

McConkie,  Elder  Brace  R    50 

McKay,  President  David  O.     4 

(Opening  Address) 

McKay,  President  David  0   87 

(General  Priesthood  Meeting) 
McKay,  President  David  0   122 

(Closing  Address) 

McKay,  President  David  O  3,  4,  9,  10,  13,  17,  18,  21,  24, 

26,  28,  32,  35,  36,  37,  42,  46,  50,  51,  52,  55,  56,  57,  62, 
64,  68,  70,  74,  75,  78,  81,  82,  85,  87,  90,  91,  95,  98,  99, 
101,  102,  106,  109,  111,  116,  117,  120,  121,  122,  125. 


132 


INDEX 


Page 


Morris,  Elder  George  Q   47 

Moyle,  President  Henry  D   91 

Moyle,  President  Henry  D   82 

(General  Priesthood  Meeting) 

Obituaries    42 

Petersen,  Elder  Mark  E   13 

Presentation  of  General  Authorities  and  Officers    42 

Priesthood  Meeting,  General   74 

Richards,  Elder  LeGrand    32 

Second  Day — Morning  Meeting    36 

Second  Day — Afternoon  Meeting   -   57 

Sill,  Elder  Sterling  W   102 

Smith,  Elder  Eldred  G   62 

Smith,  President  Joseph  Fielding    18 

Sonne,  Elder  Alma    55 

Stapley,  Elder  Delbert  L   70 

Sustaining  of  General  Authorities,  Officers  and  Auxiliary  Officers    42 

Tabernacle  Choir  and  Organ  Broadcast    129 

Taylor,  Elder  Henry  D   98 

Third  Day — Morning  Meeting   91 

Third  Day —  Afternoon  Meeting   Ill 

Tuttle,  Elder  Albert  Theodore    9 

Wirthlin,  Bishop  Joseph  L   65 

Young,  Elder  Levi  Edgar   99 

Young,  Elder  S.  Dilworth    101 


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